The essential magazine for Amiga enthusiasts
^
AMIC
Exclusive guide
to the 1996 WOA
show inside!
Over
CanDo 2.51
Full program. Original RRP £150
Plus mu
more - j
back coi
ShopperReviews
• Epson EPL-5500: An amazing
new 600dpi laser printer for the
price of an inkjet.
• Word worth 5: The latest
version comes under our
scrutinous eye.
• Loom: A brand new way of making music designed
for those with some programming experience.
• Aural Synthetica: Powerful sample creation, but is it
too complicated for its own good?.
• MasterlSO: The ability to create compact discs.
• Rexecute: A program that can transform your use of
the Amiga's inbuilt ARexx language.
• MacroForm: Organic modelling tool for LightWave.
ShopperTutorials
Introduction to CanDo
To get you started with our amazing Coverdisk, we
explain all about its features and how to use them.
Music
The power of sound samples and how to make the
most of them in your musical creations.
Comms
A detailed look at IRC. the advanced features it offers
and why it can be used for more than just chatting.
HiSoft BASIC 2
Our second installment explains the use of tag lists.
Issue 62 May 1996 £4.25 us$ 8 .9 5 <
iGuilders17.50
You can do
Create anything! There are no
limits. We give you the software
and show you how to use it.
Amiga
diy
Part 2!
From the makers rr
AMIGA
FORMAT
L! Quantum Leap
Experts in Digital Video
Proudly present the industry standard video digitiser for Amiga computers worldwide:
(24)
m
Reat 7i*tte 24 -fat &dwityide* THyCUwi
Grab pictures from any camcorder, VCR or TV directly into your Amiga!
Wide range of applications
Including Desk Top Publishing, Multimedia
Presentations, Animation, Video Titling, Databases,
Amiga Photo Albums, Newsletters, or simply Having
Even More Fun With Your Amiga!
Works with all Amiga computers
A500(+),A600, A1 200.A1 500, A2000, A3000,A4000/30/40
Easy to install and use
Simply plug the VIDI Amiga 24RT into the parallel
(printer) port of your Amiga computer. Then connect
your camcorder, VCR, or TV tuner to the VIDI Amiga
24RT using the cable provided. The user friendly
software and easy to follow instruction manual and
tutorial allow you to become expert in creating
professional quality images on your Amiga!
• Three Video Inputs
Two composite (Video In) and one S-Video (S-VHS, Hi-8 etc).
• Compatible with all television formats
Automatically detects NTSC, PAL or SECAM.
• Real Time Image Grabber
Grab a video frame in a fraction of a second.
No need to pause the VCR or hold the camera steady!
• High Resolution, True Colour
Capture images in 16 million colours at resolutions up to:-
760x604 (VIDI Amiga 24RT Pro).
380x604 (VIDI Amiga 24RT).
§\Mmw £149
mm
Incredible value at: Including v
I P Mono _JS-Yideo
Q Inl.,1,,,,. | | „,„,,„ i
ftuto
(Cont.
S«q Prgfs I Gra
Inage Ctrl I View I
Tuntr... I Store
1 1 I J "-"
Colour Preview
Preview incoming video in HAM8 or greyscale.
Comprehensive Image Processing
Average, Balance, Blur, Brightness, Contrast,
Edge Detect, Emboss, Gamma, Saturation, etc.
File Support
All AGA Modes, ILBM, BMP, TIFF etc.
Time-lapse and Carousel
Choose a time-lapse between capturing frames
from half a second up to ten hours, then
automatically capture a sequence to the Carousel!
Applications range from animations of plants
flowering to security camera monitoring.
Tel: 01506 461917
m ramp m) * Pro £249 Fax: 01 506 41 4634
Highest resolution for professional use
Including VAT
Designed and manufactured in Scotland by: Quantum Leap Software Ltd.. Livingston EH54 6TS
Who's Who
Editorial
Shop per Welcome
Editor: Sue Granl E-mail sgrant@futurenetco,uk
Consultant Editor: Nek Veitch
Art Editor Nicx Aspell
Coverdfsk Editor/Technical Writer: David Taylor
Contributors:
Mafi Evans, Larry Hickmott, Gary Whiteley, Darren Irvine,
John Kennedy, Paul Overaa and Graeme Sandlford
Photography: Pete Canning
Cover Hand Model: Sarah Moody
Advertisement Manager: Tony Hickman
Senior Sales Executive: Diane Clarke
Production Manager: Richard Gingell
Production Coordinators: Lisa Smith
Production Technicians: Jon Moore, Mark Gover,
Simon Windsor, Chns Stocker, Brian Hook, Jason TiHey
and Oliver Gibbs
Group Production Manager: Judith Green
Print Services Manager: Matthew Parker
Print Services Co-ordinator: Janet Anderson
Paper Controller: Fiona Deane
Production Administrator: Cathy Rowland
Circulation Manager Jon Bickley
Distribution: Sue Hartley
Overseas Licences: Mark Williams « 0171 331 3920
Publisher: Simon Stansfield E-mail sstansJteld@futurenetco.uk
Managing Director: Greg Ingham
Chairman: Nick Alexander
Printed by: Southernprint Ltd, Poole, Dorset
ISSN 0961-7302 Printed in the UK
News Trade Distribution - UK and worldwide:
Future Publishing B 1 01225 442244
Your guarantee of value
This magazine comes from Future Rjblishlng, a
company founded Just 1 years ago, but now
selling more computer magazines than any other
publisher .n Britain.
We offer:
Better advice. Cur Iifes are packed with tips, suggestions and explanatory
features, written by the best in the business,
Stronger reviews. Wo have a cast-iron policy ot editorial independence, and
our leviews give dear buying recommendBtJons.
Clearer design. Vog need solid information and you need it fast So our
designers highlight key elements In the articles by using charts, diagrams,
summary boxes, annotated photographs and so on.
Greater relevance. At Future, editois operate under two golden rules:
I, Understand your readers' needs. 2. Satisfy mem.
More reader Interaction. We draw strongly on readers' contributions.
resulting in the liveliest letters pages and the best reader tips.
Better value for money. More pages, better quality: mags you can trust
Copyright c iggs Future Publishing Ltd No part ol this magazine
may be reproduced without written permission. We welcome contnbutlons to*
publication but regret that we cannot return any submissions. Contributions are
accepted only on the basis ot full assignment of copyright to Future Publishing.
Any conespondence will be considerec for publication unless you specifically
state otherwise, and we reserve the rignt to edit letters published.
Member ot the Audit Bureau of Circulation
uiure
ABC
Audited circulation January to June 1995: 21,198
&*£&&&>';
How to
i Amig;
Amiga Technologies are showing off the
prototype of their new machine, the "Super
Amiga" at the WOA. Be there!
Create anything. There are no
limits. Rather bold, you may
think, but our claims for the
power of Inovatronic's excellent
authoring package, CanDo 2.51
are perfectly true! Which is why the complete
and unrestricted version of CanDo 2.51 can be
found on our main Coverdisk this month. And
just in case you are still not aware of how
powerful the program is, there are six pages of
instructions and tips
spread throughout this
issue. We have plans
for a further tutorial
series for the next few
issues too.
Excellent news
has just been
announced by Amiga
Technologies. They will
be showing off
their brand new Amiga at the World
Of Amiga show. This new
machine has a quad-speed
CD-ROM drive, it uses a
680EC30 40MHz main
processor, it features two SIMM
sockets and has a flexible expansion
bus too. We don't have any details
about the price yet - but get down to
WOA show and you can ask Amiga
EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING:
30 Monmouth Street, Bath, Avon BA1 2BW.
W 1 225 442244 Fax: 1 225 4460 1 9.
E-mail: amshopper@cix.compulink.co.uk
EDITORIAL: Send all press releases, feature
submissions and ideas to Sue Grant
E-mail: sgrant@futurenetco.uk
COVERDISKS: If you have a contribution, commercial
or otherwise, that you would like to submit for
consideration for the Coverdisks, send it lo David Taylor,
E-mail: davetaylor@futurenetco.uk
READER ENQUIRIES: Amiga Shopper is
available for phone enquiries every Wednesday
between 1 0am and 5.30pm. Please make sure your
call is necessary. W 01225 442244.
FUTURENET: You can also contact us, or browse
through a selection of Amiga articles, tutorials etc. on
FutureNet Point your WWW browser at:
http://www.futurenetco.uk
ADVERTISING: If you want to place an
advertisement in Amiga Shopper, contact Tony
Hickman or Diane Clarke on B 01225 442244.
E-mail ahickman@futurenetco.uk
ADVERTISING COMPLAINTS:
If you have a complaint about an advertiser in
Amiga Shopper, then contact Sophie Collins on
•B 01225 442244.
E-mail mops@futurenetco.uk
CUSTOMER SERVICES: W 01225 822510
SUBSCRIPTIONS/BACK ISSUES:
Call our hotline number below for a subscription to
Amiga Shopper (or a back issue). If you already have
a subscription, but have a query, write to:
Future Publishing Ltd, FREEPOST (BS4900),
SomertonTAII 6BR, or W 01225 822511.
Annual subscription rate: The subscription rate
for 1 2 issues of Amiga Shopper including poslage is
£51 (UK), £58.92 (EC), £71.52 (Rest Of World).
Issue 62
May 1996
Technologies
for more
details
yourself I The
new machine
will be on
display at the
CeBit show in
Germany too -
unfortunately, we
go to press just before that
show, but we will have a
full report next month.
There is a World Of
Amiga show guide on
page 24 to give you a
taste of what to expect;
and if you fill in the
special voucher on
page 27 and
hand it in to the
Future Publishing stand you could
win an Amiga Surfer pack - another
good reason to attend the show.
Back to the issue, there's the
second part of our Amiga DIY feature
on page 28. We want to make sure
that you really are getting the most out
of your machine and its peripherals.
Loads of readers call up with similar
problems, many of which can be
solved easily with a little bit of advice;
which inspired us to write this
feature. We hope it clears up a lot
of your problems!
Digita's excellent word
processor, Wordworth 5 is
reviewed this month, along with a
whole bunch of other new Amiga
hardware and software. And don't
forget our tutorials. Read on and enjoy! ■
Sue Grant
Editor
Turn the page for the
contents of issue 62
Amiga shopper
8&s*i
r-
tibli
&U1JJ
D
Our unique and highly rated external Clock Cartridge will enable
your Amiga to continually store the correct time and date in its
own battery backed memory.
Simply plugs onto the back of the Amiga and does not invalidate
the warranty.
Compatible with ALL Amigas
ONLY £19.99
(plus £1.00 postage and packing)
A1200 trapdoor fitting memory expansions feature a
battery backed clock and a socket for an accelerator FPU
2mb £99.99
4mb NOW ONLY £134.99
8mb NOW ONLY £259.99
JAriL) DlU V.
I These hard drives simply push onto the side of the A500 or
'. A500+ and will give your computer all the benefits that hard dri-
I ves offer. The drives are supplied formatted, partitioned and have
Workbench installed for immediate use.
Full instructions and software supplied.
\ The hard drive also has the facility to add 2, 4, 6 or 8mb of RAM
\ inside It.
u_
r- 1
til
A500/+ 250mb HARD DRIVE £209.99
Additional RAM for the hard drive £89.99 per 2mb
■Iv^v-A
&£M
Dlscology is the ultimate in disk copying power for the
Amiga. The package comprises the Discology Disk,
manual and Discology cartridge for making copies of
heavily protected programs with an external disk
drive. Discology will also format disks, check disks
, for errors etc.
Now includes CD ROM drivers and instructions.
The Dataflyer is a 16 bit SCSI II controller card that converts the signals
on the internal IDE interface to also run SCSI devices at the same time as
the IDE hard drive.
The Dataflyer SCSI+ will operate upto 5 SCSI devices such as
CD-ROMS, hard drives, SyQuest removeable drives, tape
„ \ back up drives etc.
Unlike other SCSI interfaces, the Dataflyer SCSI+ is compat-
' ible with all known accelerators etc and it does not stop
you from utilising any of the important expansion ports on
yourA1200/A600.
The Dataflyer SCSI+ easily installs into the A120O/A60O
(simply pushes In, no need to remove the metal shield)
and provides a 25 way D connector through the blanking
plate at the back of the A1200.
Full instructions and software supplied.
DATAFLYER SCSI+ ONLY £69.99
SQUIRREL SCSI INTERFACE
ALSO AVAILABLE £59.99
PCMCIA fitting SCSI interface
£19.99 EACH
LtAP&N^ ^ OR BUY
'gpEClM- BOTH for £24.99
Anti Virus Professional is the most powerful
tool for detecting and removing viruses. Anti
Virus pro will check and device hard drives,
floppy disks and even CD ROM drives for
viruses. Very straight forward to use, includes
a full 50 page manual.
Incredibly fast (upto 4x faster than a ZIP drive)
SCSI drive will store a massive 135mb per
cartridge. Comes complete with power supply,
SCSI cable, instructions and cartridge.
_.
ONLY £199.99
or £239.99 with a Squirrel or Dataflyer
135mb EZ cartridge £15.99
HE A VIRUS
PLEASE PHONE FOR A FULL INFORMATION SHEET
DAiA
4QQQ2X
A4000 SCSI controller expansion card that allows up to
7 SCSI devices to be connected to the A4000. Includes
full user manual and installation software including CD-ROM
drivers. Includes connecting cable for internal SCSI devices
and rear mounting bracket with a 25way connector for
external devices.
DATAFLYER 4000SX
ONLY £59.99
lmb £39.99
2mb £77.99
4mb £99.99
8mb £159.99
33mhz 68882 FPU (pice) £49.99
40mhz 68882 FPU (pice) £69.99
50mhz 68882 FPU (PGA) £79.99
All FPU's are supplied with crystal oscllators
This superb package is a must for any CD-ROM user.
Includes CD32 & CDTV emulation, audio CD player software
including librarian features. Direct reading of 16bit audio
samples, full support for Kodak and Corel PhotoCD Discs.
Includes the 'FISHMARKET' CD-ROM disk packed with
public domain Fred Fish disks and a huge 115 page
information packed spiral
bound manual.
ASIM CDFS
ONLY £49.99
MOD.
)Y1
.-I
M
^
Our highly rated, top quality feature packed modems are ideal for
Amiga users. All modems include our
£19.99
which includes a cable to connect the modem to the Amiga. NCOMM
comms software, Amiga Guide to Comms and a list of Bulletin
Boards from which you will be able to download vast amounts of
free software as well as have access to E-MAIL facilities.
• MNP 2-4 Error Correction
• MNP 5 Data Compression
• Fax Class I and II
compatible, Group 3
■ Hayes Compatible
• Full 80 page manual
• 12 Months guarantee
SPEEDCOM+B
(14,400 V32bis) £7!
SPEEDCOM+BF
(28,800 V34) £159.99
5' HARD
Our high speed 2.5' IDE hard drives for
the Amiga A1200 & A600 computers
come complete with fitting cable,
screws, partitioning software, full
Instructions and 12 months guaran-
tee. All drives supplied by us are for-
matted, partitioned and have
Workbench (WB2 for the A600 and
WB3 for the A1200) installed for
immediate use. Fitting is incredibly
simple; if you can plug the mouse in
mouse socket, you will be able to
plug the hard drive into the
hard drive socket.
PLEASE PHONE FIRST!
'"fit
**W.* w a>
ev e ,
355
*"*'£>
Double speed
DRIVE complete with
power supply, SCSI
cables, docking statioi
and full instructions.
Also includes stereo
headphones and car-
rying case for use as
personal CD player.
RENO CD
WITH SQUIRREL £164.99
WITH DATAFLYER £174.99
85mb £89.99
120mb£l04.99
170mb £119.99
250mb £139.99
340mb £174.99
540mb £284.99
vjj
_/aIj
o
Ultra low profile 3.5' drives for A1200.
Come complete with cables etc (as per our
2,5' drives). Simple to fit, you do not need
to cut the case of the A1200. Similar power
consumption to 2.5' drives.
540mb £174.99
850mb £194.99
•mmm
Amazing value quad speed external SCSI CD ROM
drive in a top quality enclosure.
PANASONIC QUAD SPEED EXTERNAL
WITH SQUIRREL OR DATAFLYER
ONLY £239.99
L\? D1L\ V
Highly rated SCSI drive will
store lOOmb per car-
tridge. Comes Complete
with power supply, SCSI
cable, instructions and
cartridge.
Amazing power for such a low
price. This superb accelera-
tor uses a 68020 running
at 28hz and comes com-
plete with a 68882 FPU to
enable your A1200 to run
at 5 MIPS (million W
instructions per sec-
ond)! Uses standard
72 pin SIMMS and includes a
battery backed clock.
Simple trapdoor fitting.
sir
FOR MAIL ORDER
No.l
FOR AMIGA
IN MANCHESTER
Order NOW for
immediate despatch
FREEPHONE
0500 340548
for enquiries
tel: 0161 796 5279
Send cheques or
postal orders
(made payable to
Siren Software)
or credit card details to:-
SIREN SOFTWARE,
178 BURY NEW RD,
WHITEFIELD,
MANCHESTER
M45 6QF,
ENGLAND
APOLLO
APOLLO
APOLLO
1220 ONLY £99.99
1220 +lmb £139.99
1220 +4mb £199.99
ONLY £189.99
or £229.99 with a
Squirrel or Dataflyer
lOOmb ZIP cartridge
£15.99
An incredibly powerful trapdoor fitting
accelerator based around a 68030
complete with MMU, 2 SIMM sockets
(72 PIN SIMMS), socket for a floating
point unit and battery backed clock.
Runs at just under 9.5 MIPS (million
instructions per second!)
APOLLO 1232/50 £199.99
4mb SIMM £99.99
8mb SIMM £159.99
68882 FPU £69.99
All prices include VAT. Postage and packing
will be charged at £3.50 per order {U.K.),
£7.50 Europe and £12.50 rest of the world.
Shop perCoiitents
May 1996
Issue 62
The essential magazine for Amiga enthusiasts
20
ShopperFeatures
CanDo 2.51
Making the most of your CanDo 2.51 Coverdisk
is made easy with John Kennedy's helpful
instructions and advice. We've given you the
software, now we show you how to use it to
its full potential!
>*^Ho
World Of Amiga
show guide
_24
The Amiga show of the year! Get down to
the Novotel in Hammersmith on 1 3th and 1 4th
April 1 996 and see the new "Super Amiga"
prototype on display. Sue Grant investigates
what else is on offer at the show. All Future
Publishing's Amiga magazines will be there, so
come and meet the teams.
Ultimate DIY
28
We started our DIY series last month, and we
are running this feature over the next few issues
to explore the various ways of expanding and
enhancing your Amiga. Dave Taylor and
Paul Overaa are your hosts this month.
The Epson EPL-5500 offers quality printing at I
bargain price. It's nice and compact too.
Qltd Wprdworth
HUOMpjO/X\ eilDIQ
Digita Wordwort
<3^
*t-
j2
Wordworth 5 is quicker and smoother in
operation than its predecessors.
ShopperReviews
36
Wordworth 5
Digita's latest release of Wordworth threatens to
out-perform Final Writer. Graeme Sandiford
finds out what changes have been made.
EPL-5500 printer 39
New printers are being launched on to the
market al a furious pace. Larry Hickmott tests
the new laser printer from Epson.
40
e
Amiga shopper
Loom
A new form of music creation for those with
some programming experience. Maff Evans
reviews Loom from Seasoft.
Aural Synthetica 42
Maff Evans tries out another music package,
this time a sound creation program which is also
from Seasoft Computing.
Rexecute 43
This new ARexx compiler will appeal to
beginners and experts alike. Paul Overaa
explains its many uses.
ShopperServices
Reader Ads 50
FutureNet 64
Back issues.
Mail Order
Market Place
Ad Index
65
67
76
81
ShopperReviews
MasterlSO 45
Asimware Innovations has produced special
software to write information to a CD.
Larry Hickmott discovers how it works.
MacroForm 46
One for 3D enthusiasts, Gary Whitetey
tests this new organic modelling tool for
LightWave users.
CD-ROMs
There is something for everyone here.
David Taylor reviews The Colour Library,
Aminet 10, Nothing But GIFs AGA, 3D GFX,
World Atlas and Texture Portfolio.
48
ShopperTUtoria
HiSoft BASIC 2
58
In the second installment of our BASIC tutorial,
Paul Overaa explains the use of tag lists.
Music 60
John Kennedy talks about how to make the
most of sampling music on your Amiga.
62
Comms
We looked at Internet Relay Chat (IRC) last
month, now Darren Irvine takes a closer look.
ShopperRegulars
Coverdisks.
News
8
14
Amiga Answers
52
More of your Amiga problems solved by our
panel of experts. Plus, you could win £25!
Public Domain 68
Great new programs from the Public Domain.
Letters 78
Win £25 for the letter of the month.
Next month
82
On sale, Tuesday, 30th April 1 996. Reserve
your copy today!
May 1996
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Issue 62
Issue 62
May 1996
ShopperContents
You can do
Pages 8 and 20
ShopperDisks
Another month and another excellent
selection of programs on our disks. We
have over 6Mb for you:
CanDo 2 51 8
Well, believe it or not, we're giving away
the full version of CanDo 2.51 . You might
not have noticed. Anyway, details of what
it can do are here and then a full guide
starts on page 20.
ApplicationZone
Generate ARexx code automatically,
compile it with RxGene 3 and get typing
with Blacks Editor.
MasterlSO
Try out the CD-R cutting software.
TurboCalc 3.5
At last, the much sought-after demo of
TurboCalc 3.5 from Digita. Take a tour of
all the program's cool features.
UtilityZone.
Two brilliant utilities, including the sample
converter, MultiSample.
TechnicalZone
Seven excellent programs. There's a
package to let you unpack any file and a
guru interpreter. Plus: Floppy, LowFrag,
CenterTitles, File Size and Drawer Size.
rammingZone_12
The code for the HiSoft tutorial and two
great programming utilities: MenuBuilder
and PLab.
New and updated again, the guides that
give you all the information on PD Houses
and User Groups.
Competition
Win!
M ,"?*■■ '\'\
Issue 62
May 1996
Amiga shopper
ShopperCoverdisks
CanDo
John Kennedy
"Anyone from a
complete novice
to a coding expert
can write real
Amiga programs."
0| Sfuzzle ©
ffcjL
Above, top and below:
With fullAGA graphics
support, you can
create your own
Amiga-friendly games
and share them with
your friends, or even
sell them: royalty free.
Goverdisks
CanDo 2.51
Not only is the full version of the powerful authoring program
CanDo 2.51 on our Coverdisks, but there's also a demo of
MasterlSO and loads more demos and Shareware too!
8 Amiga shopper
CanDo makes use of standard IFF
image files, and overlays button
objects on top. You can use this to
create professional multimedia and
training applications.
CanDo is a very powerful
Amiga authoring tool. It is
unlike any other
programming system you
have seen; it combines
incredible power with total ease of use.
With CanDo 2.51, anyone from a
complete novice to a coding expert can
write real Amiga programs quickly
and easily. And now you can try
this impressive program for
yourself, because we are giving
away the full version of CanDo 2.51
free on our Coverdisks this month!
We reviewed CanDo 2.51 way back in
issue 33 of Amiga Shopper, and we said;
"CanDo takes away all the programming
headaches, leaving you to get your creative
juices flowing and actually make something
quickly and easily".
CanDo programs are totally Amiga friendly.
A CanDo program can make use of standard
image files and animations created in Deluxe
Paint or Personal Paint, and use sound
effects created with a sound
sampler. A CanDo program can
look exactly like every other
application, using standard
requestors and gadgets - the
only difference being that you will
have written the CanDo program
totally by yourself.
CanDo makes it easy to write all
kinds of programs. Its unique combination of
a "point and click" interface and a powerful
scripting language means you can choose to
Dodgy disk?
To avoid errors when installing to floppies,
ensure that your destination disks are of high
quality. It an error occurs, try re-booting and
using a different spare disk - the majority of
errors are caused by faulty destination disks.
If your Coverdisk absolutely refuses to
work and you are certain it is faulty, please
return it, along with an S.A.E., to the address
below. Please do not send faulty disks to the
Amiga Shopper offices.
Amiga Shopper Coverdisk
(insert the name of the disk),
TIB pic, TIB House,
11 Edward St., Bradford BD4 7BH.
May 1996
Issue 62
John Kennedy
CanDo
ShopperCoverdisks
The top Amiga disk magazine
n : of DisKMaji -
tasazine. In thi
iup Grant, Dip e
Inosl anything. Full details in this issue'
Left: Using the document
facilities of CanDo you
can spread the word by
creating your own disk
magazines. Combine
text, graphics and sound
samples to create an
easy-to-use diskmag.
Also on this disk, yoi
Made possible uith Cai
•ful .initiations.
ou'il find soup ffi-eat nultinedia dep
anDo as well as sowe excellent in igi
o find out what uo have i
do is scroll doun through
/yupss thai this display pr
ttoi'P for you, all you need
Right: Each word in a CanDo document can trigger
a new event, which means you can create your own
Hypertext style documents.
write as few or as many lines of code as you
want. To start with you can use the icons to
create the program automatically. Almost. When
you gain confidence you can then start writing
scripts and start to take full control over your
Amiga hardware.
With CanDo, you can create many different
programs, like those listed below.
• Multimedia programs
Use CanDo to combine graphics, animations
and sounds into a single multimedia application.
Give copies to your friends or record the final
project to video tape.
• Workbench utilities
With a powerful scripting language, file-handling
capabilities and a totally Amiga-friendly
approach you can create powerful applications.
• Games
CanDo is perfect for creating games such as
complicated graphic adventures or desktop
toys. With the program's extensive graphics and
sound support, you can play back several
animations on screen at once with a
synchronised soundtrack.
• Application software
Don't let CanDo's easy-to-use interface put
you off. The program has plenty of power
under its bonnet, with built-in database
support and maths routines. You can create
your own personal information manager or bank
account monitor.
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CanDo offers full support over the Amiga's
facilities. You can create applications which run
on the Amiga Workbench or open their own
screen - the choice is yours.
Issue 62
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With CanDo you can really start to make use of
ARexx, adding features to existing programs or
even writing new ARexx applications!
• Programming utilities
CanDo is also a powerful prototyping tool for
dedicated programmers. Create a "front end"
for your Shell-based applications, or anything
with an ARexx port. You can even write
programs to control other applications such
as Art Department.
• Disk magazines
CanDo has full support for text documents, plus
user-defined buttons and gadgets. Create your
own disk magazines which will run even without
CanDo present.
CanDo is such a powerful and versatile program
that we can't possibly cover every aspect of it
on two pages, so we have investigated its
features in much more detail in our special
feature on page 20. Plus, we will be running a
CanDo has all the power you need
to create your own Amiga
application software. Everything
from mathematical graphing
programs to home budget
systems (with full on-line help
facilities) are possible.
Beginners, look!
Before using either of this
month's Coverdisks, please
be sure to back them up -
just in case. Simply follow
the easy instructions below.
p | Systen
LEUi
^iu sua
Shell Fomat RexxMas
\Aaa
jm
FixFonts NoFastnen Intel I .font -^J
i< i-r^l
DSoof up from your Workbench disk or
partition, double-click on your Shell
icon - to be found in your System Drawer.
Q If you only have one disk drive, type in
the following line and then press Return.
Diskcopy from DFO: Co DFO:
If you have two drives, place the Coverdisk In
DFO: and a blank in DF1:, then type in this
line instead:
Diskcopy from DFO: to DF1:
H Follow the on-screen prompts and
remember that the Coverdisk is the
source disk and the blank is the destination.
□ If you used the two-drive method,
remember to rename the copy by
clicking on its icon and pressing right-Amiga r.
Bit you have two drives, you can also
copy the disk from Workbench by
dragging the Coverdisk Icon over the
destination disk's.
QThen place either of the Coverdisks in
DFO: and reset the Amiga to boot it It
is best to boot disk 1 (or the Subs disk if
you're a subscriber). This will let you install
all the disks to either floppy or hard drive.
six-part CanDo tutorial from the June issue
onwards, to make absolutely sure that you get
the most out of our Coverdisk. And don't miss
our bargain upgrade offer on page 23! ■
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1
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May 1996
Amiga shopper
9
ShopperCoverdiAff^
Instructions
David Taylor
Shopper
There's no point pretending
otherwise. This month's
Coverdisks are simply
fabulous. They boast over 6Mb
of programs; in addition to the
commercial software and demos, there's
also a stunning selection of applications
and utilities from the PD world. Admit it.
You're impressed.
ApplicationZone
RxGene 3
Author: Kare Johansson
There are few serious users of the Amiga who
can deny the power of ARexx. It's a useful
language that can be used to perform repetitive
tasks or communicate between programs. Many
commercial programs have ARexx support and
you can find lots of new scripts written to take
advantage of this.
However, there is no ARexx-specific editor
supplied with the Amiga, nor any way of
compiling ARexx scripts so that they can be
executed. RxGene 3 enables you to specify
parts of the tricky code that you want within an
ARexx script. It then imports that information
from its own GUI into a specially-created editor
MasterlSO demo
The last few years have seen a remarkable
price drop in recordable CD-ROM drives.
Although they will never have mass appeal to
home users, small businesses are now finding
that such drives are within their reach and they
give the advantage of cross-platform
accessibility. Some submissions for
magazines appear on CDs and entire issues of
Amiga Shopper are now stored on CDs.
Of course, to take advantage of CD-R,
even for audio work, you need software to
drive the hardware, which is where MasterlSO
steps in. From Asimware, creators of
AsimCDFS, the program is reviewed this issue
on page 45, but you can take a look at our
demo version on the Coverdisks. The program
has very high machine requirements, but if
you're looking at cutting CDs, you're likely to
have the necessary hardware. For further
details, contact Blittersoft ~ 01908 261466.
Choice
You think that giving away the full CanDo 2.51 program is
enough? You're wrong. We have demos and Shareware galore
lined up too. David Taylor explains.
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which can position the scripts as you need
them. You can then fill out this skeleton to
complete the script. When it's finished you can
compile the script. As with Rexecute, the new
ARexx compiler from Horizon (reviewed on page
43), the scripts still need Rexxmast to run, but
what results you can achieve!
A huge thanks to the author for sending this
program in so that AS readers can take
advantage of it.
Blacks Editor
Author: Marco Negri
Last month, Blacks Editor was awarded a Star
buy in our Internet Select section, this month we
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MasterlSO offers Amiga owners the chance
to cut their own compact discs.
10 AWOQASHOPPER
May 1996
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Tim
RxGene 3 (far left) can
help you generate
ARexx code and then
compile it to create
programs like these
two (above and left).
It shows how much
more you can do with
ARexx than just create
simple scripts.
just had to give it to you. This is a new text
editor which has features galore, and is ideal
for creating documents or editing scripts. This
version of the program requires Workbench 3,
but a Workbench 2 version is in development.
Blacks Editor has built-in ARexx support that
gives you options to count and save blocks as
well as record and use your own macros, so
repetitive tasks can be carried out automatically.
Of course, there are also many other
features included in the program, from the find
facility and the conversion of characters to and
from cases, to paragraph formatting and the
in-built document encryption for sensitive data.
It's astonishing to see a first release of a
program like this offering so many advanced
options. There are now quite a number of
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Blacks Editor is a new text editor with ARexx
support and masses of features.
Issue 62
David Taylor
Instructions
{^WfepperCoverdisks
different Freeware and Shareware text
editors available, but Blacks Editor is sure to
find an audience.
UtilityZone
MultiSample
Author: Graham Dean
File formats are a bit of a pain. It doesn't matter
what medium you work with: documents,
pictures or sounds. They are all available in
different formats or even come from different
platforms. The problem is that most applications
can only deal with one or two types of format.
So what do you do if you have a sound sample
you want to use, but your editor won't load it?
You use MultiSample, of course.
This utility has an obvious GUI with the
input and output files and formats easily chosen.
It gives you greater compatibility for sound files
and music packages.
CRSnap
Author: C. R. Hahn
Taking screenshots has always been pretty
much the job of Quickgrab. However, the
problem with Quickgrab is that it doesn't take
any notice of any previous shots from earlier
uses so that it overwrites earlier files.
CRSnap overcomes this. It is a
screengrabbing commodity that enables you to
specify keys and save directories, but which
most importantly will not overwrite earlier files.
It's also remarkably compact.
TechnicalZone
XFD
Authors: Various
This package is a collection of libraries and
sub-libraries together with CLI commands that
give you access to de-pack just about every
type of crunched file that the Amiga uses.
There are so many different types of
packers used that there is no way you could
MultiSample is an
accessible utility that
can convert sound
samples for you. This
picture was taken
using CRSnap - the
new screengrabber.
have every single package (even I don't!), but
XFD enables you to unpack them all and
remarkably easily. Simple knowledge of the Shell
is all that's needed.
Guru 3
Author: Emiel Lensink
OK, hands up anyone who's never had a guru
meditation. Thought so. They are supposed to
be there as a guide to the fault to let you
know what went wrong, but the fact is that not
many people actually know how to interpret
the eight figure numbers. Guru 3 is the
solution; tell it the number and it will report, in
English, the fault.
TurboCalc 3.5 demo
TurboCalc has become one of the
Amiga's best spreadsheet programs.
The interface is configurable and
inserting functions into a cell is simple.
Any data can then be displayed in a
variety of visual manners using the
graph functions. An additional boon for
Digita users is that Wordworth 5 (see
page 36) can import spreadsheets
directly on to the Wordworth page.
I l
""" 1"
There are full documents supplied
with our demo so that you can try out a
of TurboCalc's functions and get to
know the program. In this version, the
save and print options have been
disabled, but you'll be glad to know that
readers of AS can take advantage of an
exclusive upgrade offer.
For a limited period (until 30th April
1996), you can save
£20 off the retail price
of £49.99 and get the
full version for only
£29.99. Digita is the
exclusive worldwide
distributor of the
English version of
TurboCalc and
provides technical
support to its
registered users.
TurboCalc 3.5 is one of the
Amiga's best spreadsheets.
Title _
Your address
.Initials
Surname
Post code
Your signature .
Description
_Telephone_
RRP
TurboCalc 3.5 £49.99
AS price
£29.99
P&P
£3
Total (please add postage and packing) £
Method of payment (please tick one):
Cheque □ Postal Order □
Credit Card (Visa/Access/Eurocard/Mastercard) [
card no: nana nana anna □□□□
Expiry date: | || || || |
Please make your cheques payable to Digita International.
Post your order to: Amiga Shopper TurboCalc 3.5 Offer, Digita
International Ltd., Black Horse House, Exmouth EX8 1JL
Or call Digita's Order Hotline on » 01 395 270273.
You may photocopy this form. Offer ends 30/4/96
Issue 62
May 1996 I
Amiga shopper 11
ShopperCoverdiAsT^
Instructions
David Taylor
Left: PLab is an
image processor
for programmers.
Below: Another
utility for
programmers,
MenuBuilder
generates code
for menus.
■ ff .. Palette
Hidth:B648 Height: B288
Depth:8
► Floppy
Author: OR
This is a utility that I mentioned last month in
our PD Select section. It enables you to create
disks according to a new system; an
improvement on the trackdisk.device, which
enables you to fit around another 1 per cent on
to a normal DD floppy.
The difference between Floppy and other
disk systems is that it provides a bootable
version. Obviously, you need to have the
system installed so that it boots from a
standard disk initially, but after the first boot,
the system is kept in RAM, even when you
soft reboot.
Disk contributions
This month's disks were compiled using files
from Aminet and from Walton's Mountain
BBS (« 0181 891 5730), and with the help of
the authors of the programs.
If you would like to contribute to a future
disk, whether you have a full application,
utility, 40K demo, clipart, font, 3D object, or
even a module, send it to:
David Taylor,
Amiga Shopper Coverdisk Contributions,
30 Monmouth Street, Bath, Avon BA1 2BW.
Please only send the minimum distribution
archive. Also, please do not powerpack
(or similar) any files because it detracts
from the archiving.
Caption:
Hane:
Enabled: Vl
Checkable: If
iHaQounli! >
TITLE.SYSTEH
Checked:
Add I ten I
3wrtCut:
Add Bar Delete Iten
» Systen
»»» About NConn
»»» Status
mm
»»» Load conf ig
»»» Save conf ig
»»»
>»»> Script [Fl
mm Macrokeys [Ml
»»» Printer tP]
mm Hew CLI [Z]
mm
mm Log Cal Is
mm-
mm Set Priority
mi
LowFrag
Author: Eric Sauvageau
All computers tend to face the problem of
memory fragmentation, where one small file left
lying around in memory by a program causes
problems by separating two large blocks, so that
a new program cannot access the available
memory as a large block. There is no solution to
the problem, but there is LowFrag. LowFrag
improves the ordering of your memory so that
small files are kept out of the middle of memory
blocks. It will help solve some memory problems.
CenterTitles
Author: Massimo Tantignone
This little hack adjusts the titles in windows so
that instead of appearing shunted to the side,
they centre themselves. It's a small difference,
but one that makes your Workbench look a
great deal neater.
Subscribers dis
Subscribing to your
favourite magazine
doesn't just mean saving
money off the cost of
each issue. Nor simply
getting an exclusive
newsletter with special
subscriber discounts. And
it doesn't end with the
extra money savings from
our mail order either.
If you haven't guessed,
the big disk next to this is
a hint. Yes, every month we
produce a third disk
packed with an additional
3Mb of fantastic programs,
exclusive to AS subscribers.
This month, for instance, there's the
complete Fractal Pro package which is one of
some money an
being an Amiga
the Amiga's most powerful
fractal generators. There's
also the new version of
MagnifiCAD, the computer-
aided design program.
CGWBPattern is a superior
update for the WBPattern
preferences. Then, there's
another four supreme
packages too.
So, the question is,
how do you take advantage
of all these exceptional
offers? Very easily. All you
have to do is pick up the
phone and dial our
subscription hotline on
» 01225 82251 1 . Give them
d experience the wonder of
Shopper subscriber.
12 Amiga shopper
May 1996
File Size and
Drawer Size
Author: Robert Simpson
These two programs add themselves to the
tools menu on Workbench and enable you to
get real sizes of multiple files or drawers.
Prog ram mingZone
We have a treat for programmers this month.
Not only does the ProgrammingZone contain
the code that accompanies our HiSoft BASIC
tutorial (see page 58), but there are also two
utilities to make your life dreamy!
MenuBuilder
Author: Adam Dawes
This is a utility designed for programmers who
work within the Intuition environment. It enables
you to design menus from within a GUI and
then generates the source code for inclusion in
your program.
This version is its initial release and only
supports C, but the author has plans to extend it
further based on feedback - so don't forget to
get in touch with him.
PLab
Author: Robert Simpson
This is a package designed for programmers
who need to incorporate images into their
work. It can convert pictures into raw data for
you as well as add some compression and
perform a variety of other useful, image-related
tasks. The documentation explains and details
all the options.
InformationZone
As always, the InformationZone provides you
with details of User Groups and PD Houses.
We update it with new entries every month, but
we are still receiving some entries on paper.
Please send in your text as ASCII on a disk - it
makes our life so much easier!
While this section of the disk is extremely
popular, there are limits to the amount of
information we can afford to supply on the
disk. To supplement the guide, you will have
doubtless noticed the launch of our new
Purely PD section (see page 77), which is an
advertising section specifically for the PD so
that you can find what you are looking for
easily and quickly. ■
Shareware notice!
Remember that a number of the programs
on our Coverdisks are some form of
Shareware. Amiga Shopper has compiled
both disks with the help of the authors, who
have received no fee from us.
So, if you keep and use these programs,
you must register. Some people only want a
postcard, so please put in the effort. They
did when they created the program.
Issue 62
FREE DIREaORY OPUS 4.12
WORTH OVER £50
MAKES YOUR AMIGA MORE THAN
2TIMESFASTER-2.88MIPS
No
FPU
/HA^jAiU/H RA/H8 n
' A1200SMB
33MHz
FPU
£4999 £89.99
£119.99 £15999
£159.99 £19999
£24999 £28999
Speed Increase of nearly 2.3 times ♦ Available with 0, 2, 4 or 8MB of
32-Bit RAM installed ♦ Uses Standard 72-pin Simms ♦ Optional PLCC
Type FPU (floating point unit) ♦ Battery Backed Clock/Calender
♦ Finger CutOut to help Installation ♦ 0-4mb - pcmcia compatible
(FOR USE WITH OVERDRIVE, SQUIRREL ETC.) ♦ ZERO WaiTE STATE DESIGN.
56 O dpi
3 BUTTON
MICE * MATS
for All Amigai c Atari STi
BEIGE £12.99
BLACK £14.99
mat £2.99 or £1 with
a Mouse
Award winning 560dpi Resolution ♦ 90% rating in CU Amiga
♦ Micro Switched Buttons ♦ Amiga/Atari ST Switchable ♦ All 3
buttons can be used with many programs such as Directory Opus 5
SaTURN
Eilirntl 1Mb floppy Priri
fir *ll Ami fat
Compatible with ALL Amigas
♦ High Quality SONY Drive
♦ Robust Metal Case
♦ Anti-Click as Standard
♦ Enable/Disable Switch ♦ Low Power
Consumption ♦ Thru Port for Extra Drives
NEW PRICES
& PRODUCTS
FOR '96
FREE DIRECTORY OPUS 4.12
WORTH OVER £50
£49.99
powercopy
Professional 3
£ S*f/**r* Ptk B^iup SiiHtm
PlEASE NO T E:- PERMISSION FROM THE
COPYRIGHT OWNER MUST HE OBTAJNeD TO
LEOliY BACKUP YOUR SOfTWARE.
^
THE best disk backup system on
the market. We have yet to
discover a program that this
can't backup. Ideal to protect
your expensive software library.
£29
'.99
MOUSE.
for all Amigas
IDEAL GIFT FOR THE FOOTBALL
MANAGEMENT GAME PLAYER
♦ High Resolution 400dpi
♦ 2 MicroSwitched Buttons
♦ Anti-Click as Standard
ncludes a FREE Pitch Marked Mouse Mat
FREE PREMIER MANAGER 2, SPACE
CRUSADER & ZOOL 2 worth over £60
{WHILE STOCKS LAST)
FREE DIRECTORY OPUS 4.12
WORTH OVER £50
33MHz FPU
An FPU DRAMATlCALLr INCREASES THE SPEED OF
MATHEMATICAL CALCULATIONS (BY UP TO 1 27
TIMES!) AND WE WOULD RECOMMEND IT FOR
USERS OF GRAPHICAL APPUCATIONS SUCH AS
Image FX, Lightwave, Vista Pro, Imagine etc.
Our FPU pack comes with the timing
crystal and is compatible with most A 1 200
RAM/Processor Accelerators such as our
Apollo/Magnum design, Hawk, Buzzard
and Viper. If bought independent of our
board the price is
£44
.99
(OR £40 WITH AN A1200 board)
ENTERPRISE
PuiTtfVltrhMmi
fir til Amifi:
Single Workstation
FORA500/600/1200
£29.99
Double Workstation
FORA500/600/1200
Plus Extra Shelf
£34.99
Wide Workstation
A500/600/1 200 with
Additional Side Peripherals
(Hard Disk or Floppy Drive)
£34.99
Titan & x-link
High Spood BT Affrwii
Modems for *ll Amiga,
BT APPROVED
Both Modems have the
following Specification
♦ l 4.4k o« 28.8k Speeds (v34 (28.8k), v32ais, v32, V23, v22, UTAH 14 4i
v22bis, v21) ♦ Cable 4 SOf tw«be Supplied |N-Comm fob Amiga]
♦ Automatic Fallback & Forward for Optimum Line
Pekfokmance ♦ GP Fax Sofiwak Option ♦ Internet Compatible *■'"" "•*
» Send and Receive faxes from your Amiga ♦ BABT/BT Approved
(Legally required for use on a BT line) • MNP 2-5 & v42, UTAH 28.8k
v42&s ♦ Sync & Async Operation ♦ Group 1 -3 Fax to 14.4k
♦ Fully Hayes Compatible • LED Front Panel Display „ ..,,..
*-[ II' /& ci
Modem Only
£9$99
£11999
£19999
£21999
Modem I GP Fax
£13999
£15999
£23999
£25999
MAKES YOUR AMIGA MORE THAN
5.6 TIMES FASTER- 7.12 MIPS
G\
2me
4me
8me
Speed Increase of over 5.6 times i#
♦ 680EC30 Processor running ol 40MHz |0l\
(TRUE 40MHz chip - NOT Overclocked)
providing 7.12mips of power ♦ Up to 128Mb of
RAM con be odded ♦ Available with 0, 2, A, 8
or 1 6Mb of 32-bit RAM Installed (call for higher
SIMM sizes) ♦ Kickstart ReMopping
♦ Optional SCSI-II interface ♦ Can
accommodate o 72-pin industry standard SIMM
♦ Optional PLCC type FPU (Floating Point Unit)
♦ Battery Backed Clock/Calender ♦ PCMCIA
compatible so you can still use products such as
OverDrive HD or CD/Zappo CD-ROM or
Squirrel ♦ Zero Woite State Design.
MA&flUM 030/40
^k^k^mV J40t)t) At\MU-, 'nin
A1200 40MHz '030
Processor Accuikatbs
No
FPU
33MHz
FPU
£13999
£19999
£24999
£34999
£17999
£23999
£28999
£38999
£54999 £589
'.99
SCSI-II Option
The Magnum '030/40 can
also be expanded via our
warranty safe scsi-ii interface
to support up to 6 sc5i
devices with direct access to
the '030 processor and
memory for ultra-fast access.
our controller is also
COMPATIBLE WITH THE VlPER-ll
JC©
Over the past 6 years, Directory Opus has
become established as the most popular
DIRECTORY UT1UTY ON THE Am»GA. WITH THE
new Opus 5, the tradition continues.
Smaiifr. faster and more efficient than tVf*
before, Opus 5 harnesses the power of
object orientated muultasking design ike
never before, put simply, opus 5 is now th£
most powerful hard drive and file
MANAGEMENT UTILfY EVEd!
DIRECTORY
OPUS 5
Advanced file Management
Software for all Amigas
IDEAL CD
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
WITH ADVANCED DIRECTORY
CACHING, FILTERING AND
ARCHIVE HANDLING
♦ Redesigned and rewritten from ground
up. Much faster more efficient and many
new revolutionary features. ♦ New Interface with more meaningful
control and useful power. ♦ Amiga Style Guide compliant ensures
clearer communication of information and greater control.
♦ Unlimited number of fully independent file display windows and
button banks. Buttons can be defined from text or graphics ♦ Multiple
configuration editors - which can be used whilst performing other
tasks! ♦ Internal Multitasking allowing you to perform multiple
operations simultaneously. ♦ AmigaGuide On-Line Help ♦ Advanced file
type recognition system including OS3.X Datatype Support ♦ Extensive
'Drag 'n' Drop' throughout the program ♦ Advanced ARexx support
♦ Can even Replace & Enhance Workbench^
Workbench 2 +
& Hard Disk Required
VERSION5.il NOW
SHIPPING CALL ABOUT
UPDATES FROM 5.0 AND A
) arlm sum
49
»9
ORDER HOTLINE
01322-527800
01322-527810
BETWEEN 9AM AND 5.30PM, MONDAY TO
SATURDAY, TO PAY BY CREDIT CARD.
TO PAY BY CHEQUE OR POSTAL ORDER
PLEASE RETURN THE ORDER FORM BELOW
TO - WIZARD DEVELOPMENTS,
PO BOX 490, DARTF0RD, KENT, DAI 2UH
Order Item
Also Available
EasyLedgers 2 Amiga Format Gold - The ONLY full accounts package
- Demo Disk available - Call about Trail Offer - £1 1 9.99
(limited offer price) - Hard Disk + 2Mb RAM Required
GP Fax The Ultimate Fax Software Solution - Amiga Format
Gold - Amiga Computing 9/10 - £44.99
Image FX 2.1a The ULTIMATE image processing system - Amiga Format
Gold - 2Mb & Hard Disk Required - £1 49.99
TurboPrint Printer Enhancement System - A must for ALL printer
owners - Amiga Shopper 90% - £49.99
Tower System From Micronik for the Al 200 - "The Ultimate Al 200
Expansion" - CU Amiga, 90% - £499.99
A500 512k RAM Expansion - £19.99 with FREE Opus 4 worth over £50
A500PLUS 1Mb RAM Expansion - £29.99 with FREE Opus A worth over £50
A600 1 Mb RAM Expansion - £29.99 with FREE Opus 4 worth over £50
10 2S/DD Disks with Coloured labels - £4.99
50 2S/DD Disks with Coloured labels - £19.99
100 2S/DD Disks with Coloured labels - £34.99
ON ALL PRODUCTS
' Wonev bad offer Is only applicable to hordwre Items
Price
I
Name
Addres
Post Code
Phone No.
CHEQUES SHOULD BE MADE PAYABLE TO WIZARD DEVELOPMENTS.
contact us on INTERNET
SALES@W1ZARD-D.DEM0N.C0.UK
Prices include VAT & carriage to the UK moinlond. Pteose odd E5 lo your
order for EC destinations and El (or other countries. All products are is
subject lo ovailobility. E&OE. Advertised prices & specification may change
without notice.
ShopperNews
May 1996
Issue 62
&£&£&&&.
: pi;
'/0////f//f0/00/M000//00:
AT show off new Amiga
prototype; special hard drive
offer; SX32 upgrade for
CD32; Siamese prices;
PPaint update and more!
New Amiga model
unveiled by AT at CeBit
At last, it's the Amiga that we all
wanted. Since Amiga
Technologies were established
they have been bombarded with
requests from Amiga owners for new machines.
We've all been hankering after a faster, more
stylish and more expandable machine that
doesn't cost the Earth (or two and a half grand
to be more exact.
Now, at CeBit '96 (one of the world's
largest computer fairs), Amiga Technologies
have made their response - the Amiga Mind
Walker. Don't worry, the lame name is likely to
be changed. The prototype model on display is
quite a departure from the normal styling we
come to expect from the Amiga. Gone are the
beige tones and the wedge-like shape of the
A1 200 and even the boxiness of the A4000 and
the other big-box machines. The new Amiga is
now a silver, svelte and decidedly futuristic-
"Gone are the
beige tones and
the wedge-like
shape."
looking thing. Starting from a square base the
casing gradually curves toward the top to create
an arch. It also has a detached keyboard.
However, more important than cosmetic
changes, are the changes made inside. Not only
is the machine faster than a standard A1 200,
thanks to its 680EC30 processor, it is infinitely
more expandable due to a new modular design.
The motherboard features twin SIMM sockets
for fitting up to 1 28Mb of RAM without the need
for memory cards.
The most innovative feature of the machine
is its expansion bus which can except standard
Amiga Zorro slots and PCI ones. This means
that you can take advantage of existing Amiga
cards, cheaper PC peripherals and the new
PowerPC cards. The great thing about the
machine is that individuals can walk into a store
and choose the system they want - either
starting off small and building the system piece-
by-piece or going straight for a monster tower.
It will be supplied as standard with a quad-
speed CD-ROM drive, HD floppy and a 500Mb-
ish hard drive. Because it is an "inbetween an
A1 200-and-A4000" machine, its pricing is
expected to be £700. Full production should
start this Summer in preparation for an
anticipated big "Christmas". The new Amiga will
be at the World Of Amiga show (see page 24).
The power of this month's Coverdisk,
CanDO 2.51 means that it requires a hard
drive. We know that a lot of you already have
drives, but we didn't want to leave you
floppy users out in the cold. We've been
working hard to secure a special deal
for you to get you a hard drive upgrade
for the best price possible.
We've finalised a deal at the twelfth hour
Name
(which is why this piece is here instead of
with our other offers). A1 200 owners
can obtain a 3.5-inch IDE hard drive
with an amazing 1Gb (1,000Mb)
capacity for only £1901 That's a
saving of £40 off the already
mpressive RRP of £229. The deal
has been negotiated with Gasteiner, so
the quality is assured and we'll supply
Credit Card no
each drive with the
necessary cabling and a
selection of PD software for free.'
Because of its incredible value,
this offer is only available until
Tuesday, 30th April 1996. You can obtain"
it by completing this form or by phoning our
order hotline on « 01 225 82251 1 and
quoting order code AS/Gig/03.
Address
Post Code
Expiry Date
i
_u
Phone Number_
1Gb 3.5" hard drive for A1200 £190 AS/Gig/03
Customers outside the UK add £4.00 for overseas delivery.
Method of payment Access Visa LI Cheque □ PO D
Please make cheques payable to: Future Publishing Limited.
All prices include posting, packing and VAT.
Send form to: Amiga Shopper, Future Publishing Ltd, FREEPOST
(BS4900), Somerton, Somerset TA11 6BR
Do not send cash. Use the methods of payment listed above. EEC
customers registered for VAT, please quote your registration number:
O Tick here if you don't want to receive special offers from other
specially-selected companies. AMS/62
14 Amiga shopper
Issue 62
May 1996
ShopperNews
CD32 expansion
We haven't heard much about the CD 33 recently, but now Eyetech have announced a new internal expansion
unit for the machine. The SX32 is intended to turn your CD 35 from just a games console, into a real computer.
The SX32 fits within the CD 32 's FMV slot and includes all the standard ports, a VGA monitor connector and
provision for an internal hard drive and 8Mb memory expansion.
The SX-1 was the first expansion unit developed for the CD 32 , but its performance was disappointing in
that it was much too unstable and bulky to do its job properly. The SX32, on the other hand, is "ideal for a
portable, low-cost, multimedia delivery platform," apparently. The SX32 will be reviewed fully in next month's
Amiga Shopper.
For further
information call
Eyetech on
= 01642
713185.
Sound reduction
Do you want to improve the quality of your sound
recording? Well, you can with the Little Gem desktop
micro audio mixer that we reviewed back in our
October 1 995 issue. And now you save £20 when you
buy the unit from Gillet Multimedia. They have slashed
the price from £69.95 to a mere £49.95.
Give them a call on « 01353 669203.
Fontastic!
The home and professional video enthusiast now have
another source of fonts for their video titling.
MovieFonts 2 from Diskotech is a collection of 1 8
6ftff»Pf£ftll
wuj jj _4tfy,
*$*_>-> .*;
*¥
^liL
T&mti ?j*£
,1 I j'-T _"J _"--'
original animated titling fonts. The fonts are all in
colour and they work with all Amigas with 1 Mb and
Deluxe Paint 3 (or a similar art/animation program.)
Moviefonts 2 costs £40. If you want to know
more call Diskotech on » 01591 620242.
tbits
Northern lights
Amiga nuts who live near Wigan
will be pleased to learn of the birth
of another new User Group. The
group meets every Sunday at 1 pm
at St. Thomas The Martyr School
Hall, Highgate Road, UpHolland,
Wigan, Lanes. They offer free
advice, cheap hardware and have
an extensive PD library. Entrance
fee is £1 .50 and you are urged to
bring your Amiga with you!
New books
Wiley have just released a new
book called the Programmer's
Guide To Online Resources.
Written by Bob Kochem, the book
aims to help you track down the
programming resources you need.
It covers programmer-oriented
bulletin boards, the Internet,
CompuServe, America Online,
Delphi, BIX, GEnie, eWorld and
Microsoft Network.
The Programmer's Guide To
Online Resources costs £18.99
and is available by order from
major bookstores, or you could call
Wiley themselves on « 01 243
843294, but they charge £2 for
postage and packing.
Escom shares
Amongst rumours of financial
difficulties, fuelled by their
announcement of their DM1 25
million ($85m) losses for 1 995,
Escom increased its capital with a
release of extra shares. The shares
were "taken over by Commerzbank
AG for the issue consortium and
will be offered to shareholders at
the earliest possible date". This
increase was an agreement
between the company, its
associates and bankers so that
they acquired new resources
amounting to around DM100
million ($70m).
Blitz Basic 2.1
In the April 1996 Amiga Shopper
we reviewed Blitz Basic 2.1, we
also mentioned the program in our
games creation feature in the
same issue. Unfortunately, we
quoted the price incorrectly in the
feature. Blitz Basic 2.1 actually
costs £34.99 from Guildhall
Leisure on « 01 302 890000.
We are sorry for any
inconvenience caused.
Amiga shopper 15
THE MAN FROM ESCOM EXPLAINS...
"How to get an
^
A1200 for
only €249
a
ESCOM store today. Because .. Qa A1200 'Magic Pack.'
Rmiga Magic Pack
■ 1 x Amiga A1200 " 1 x Two Button Mouse ■ 1 x Power Supply
■ Workbench ■ Kickstart 3.1 ■ 3 User Manuals.
SOFTWARE BUNDLE INCLUDES ■ Digita Wordsworth 4SE
* Wordsworth Print Manager ■ Digita Organiser
■ Digita Datastore * Photogenics 1.2SE 'Personal
Paint 6.4 ■ Turbocalc 3.5 ■ Whizz ■ Pinball Mania
"Now . .
that's N » L £399-oo
magic!" ^ trade , n T
c24Q°°
IESCOMI
VOTED
I RETAILER
oFT .ttf
YEAR
inc. VAT
Amiga A500 or A600 Computers must be in full working order.
OVER 200 STORES NATIONWIDE
FOR DETAILS OF YOUR NEAREST STORE PHONE
0990 100888
OPENING TIMES
Monday-Friday 9.30am-6.00pm Thursday 9.3Qam-B.O0pm
Saturday 9O0am-5.30pm Sunday t0O0am-4.O0pm
OFFICE WORLD OPENING HOURS
Monday-Friday 8 00am- B 00pm Saturday 9.00a m-G. 00pm
Sunday lOJOam-OOpm
USERS BUY DIRECT ON 0990 555888
§D
RHMKI
AVAjIAHII
own Duns
I EXMRt
I mifNOlY
I ADVICE
□&
^5£g B^lg H
11*11 NIGHT
OPFhlUG
miwso*v
eosumore
J F R O M
THE EASY WAY TO CHOOSE A PC
ESCOM UK LIMITED. 3 RIVERSIDE WAY. RIVERSIDE BUSINESS PARK. IRVINE KA11 5DJ. TELEPHONE: 01294 222600 FAX: 01294 223200. Registered in Scotland Reg. No. 137446
WWovvi » o» OS 1 Wa.p ft pro- oadrd on vvVrmv Oinci appticalam voppfed on CD. Uanuab air available tor W additional charge PnMt valid from Hnd rrtmar, 1996 II* Imrl lm«ir* lojo and Ptni.om 1 Promvor logo art nhjotarW UadrmaiU Of l«Wl Corporaton. Prion and delate are rwtrci ai lime of 90-10 lo arm Often art iftM 10
availability and vpecihYaiivi rhaivin without win. blended wymtm i~d credit facilities available subject to oalos on irletted svsteiris onl» ill tSCOM syslims one wilh 13 iMfiM vwfinty. IVfitten quotations ivailible tain firit ReOil finance ltd. PO 80. SI. Onpit Unj. Ifoll ISI 6DG iiOE All pfMutll mjy rot K inlaw « * suns
Issue 62
May 1996
ShopperNews
W+fS* .
;ing for different
ion kit will, as
|cosf £129.95,
Bed PCI SCSI-2
$I>buy the PC itself
units are included within
eet-486 DX2 with
"^sosts £736.27
rough to a Pentium
K 081.97! To
act
MmmM
The April issue of
the world famous
AMIGA POWER
is full. Of things.
We have an EXCLUSIVE review (that's "EXCLUSIVE"
as in "not reviewed anywhere else for ages") of the
astoundingly impressive new pinball game from 21st
Century, Slamtilt. We laugh heartily at the feeble
attempts of Super Street Fighter II Turbo to be any
good. We conclude our complete playing guide to Alien
Breed 3D. We examine the complete and utter history
of pinball - both on and off the Amiga. And we
reminisce (in that tedious way people of our age tend to
do) about one of our favourite children's shows from the
1 970s, Canoe Squad. It's out now. Or soon anyway.
An Editor
AMIGA POWER
AMIGA
FORMAT
Our man in Germany
this month is young
Mr. Sandiford. He isn't
usually in Germany, but
he is this month, because he has been dispatched
with a notebook, camera, press badge and plenty of
sharp pencils to bring us back all the details on the
exciting CeBit show. Amongst other exhibitors,
Amiga Technologies will be there, showing off a
brand new Amiga! Graeme will be only too happy to
tell you all about it in the next issue of Amiga Format,
on sale 1 1 th April,
Nick Veitch
Editor
Ttbits
Personal
development
Cloanto have been continuing
development of their popular
Personal Paint program. PPaint,
they believe, is the ideal program
for Internet publishing, because its
colour reduction abilities make it
perfect for helping save download
time for pictures, and its support of
new formats like PNG gives users
a program from a company with
"years of experience where PC
and Mac companies are just
beginning to introduce products."
They have also released a GIF
module for PPaint, which includes
support and documentation for
Internet features. It is available
from Aminet as gfx/conv/gif_io.lha.
Cloanto have also finished a
set of high quality datatypes for
GIF, JPEG, PNG and XBM
formats. They claim they are "fast,
system compliant and support
unusual format variants." They
support 24-bit datatype tag
extensions and can pass true
colour data to applications such as
the CyberGraphX software. These
datatypes are included in the
Amiga Surfer pack and will enable
users to view 99.5 per cent of
pictures on the WWW.
UUSjKEE
To make buying by mail order as easy and as
safe as possible, Amiga Shopper has put
together the following top 10 tips to buying
mail order products:
1 Before you send any money for goods,
telephone the supplier to make sure that the
item you require is in stock.
Ask questions about the mail order
company's policy on delivery and returns of
faulty equipment. Make sure there are no
hidden costs such as postage and packing.
Find out when you can realistically expect to
receive your goods.
2 Always read the small print on
advertisements.
3 Beware of companies that do not include
their address on their advertisements. Avoid
companies which do not answer or return
your telephone calls.
Pay by credit card where you can. If you are
• ordering goods of more than £100 in total
value, you are legally entitled to claim
compensation from some credit companies if
the retailer goes bust. Check your credit card
company's policy. You can also try to get extra
insurance in advance.
5 Always keep records. If you are buying by
credit card, keep a note of the time of the
order and ask for an order number. When
ordering anything over the telephone, always
double-check the price.
6 It you are not paying for the goods by
credit card, pay by cheque instead. Never
send cash through the post, and avoid using
postal orders.
7 If you are sending a cheque, keep a note of
the cheque number, the date and the exact
value. Make sure you know the exact name of
the mail order company too.
8 When you receive your goods, check them
carefully. If anything is missing or faulty,
contact the supplier immediately.
9 Always order goods from the most recent
issue of Amiga Shopper.
J If a problem arises, contact the supplier
in the first instance. Calmly and politely
tell them your problem. Most problems turn out
to be minor hitches or misunderstandings that
can easily be resolved without taking the
matter further.
If you think you have a grievance, contact
your local Trading Standards Officer. The
number is in the phone book.
Amiga shopper
Late Night Open
Wednesday & Thursday
ill 7.30pm
Open Sunday
1 1 am to 4prn_ j
COMPUTER CENTRE
HOWTOORDER LOW COST DELIVERY Telephone 0113 2319444
S&SS&TSSra !?: 4 Week Days
Order by tcl
•WiVimaitVa fit i
correspondenceplease quote a
working days cheque clearance
SHOWROOM ADDRESS:
DEPT. AS, UNIT 3, ARMLEY PARK
COURT, STANNINGLEY RD,
LEEDS, LSI2 2AE.
"TKusili^;
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Saturday delivery
£io:oo E ^s
•All prices include VAT @ 1 7.5%
• Large showroom with parking
• Multi-million pound company
•Overseas orders welcome
•Educational purchase orders welcome
I Lombard Tricity low rate
| finance now available, call.
24 HR MAIL ORDER SERVICE FAX: 1 1 3 23 1 -9 1 9 1
WW! BBS Sales & Technical line Tel: 01 13 231-1422
www.firstnet.co.ukifirstcom
AMIGA REPAIR
CENTRE
Wf olio a FREE quotation o
Amiga or any
prripht'jl (monitors,
printer. e«V A
delivery tariff of Just
11.00 it charged or
Jllernill.eij jou can
*N
EASV ACCESS FROM M62. Ml and.the.AJ,
FIRST
COMPUTER
CENTRE-
rwnin
M67JM62I
f'0"-^U:ait|oi«HIEwUtaMlUo"^|MontBHill TwUdEta
twnoVfrari Mil I. FeBin. spi lor A51 fa "turps ■*. tnc tnrtcj (jnury.faa
MMtttll JutxtionW,A41toAnW«.f l r.i a r, frj m il,*|MroSfb.rni*lirftH.
' i-fp-i -".d tht AM(b)^*Min(lt*<itMn)ufcit)imna *™lcy nntorr. _
Hardware
RAM Expansion CD ROM Drives/Squirrel l/face
UK'S cheapest
Amiga's
A 1 200
Magic Pack
Inc. Wordworth 4se
Personal Paint V6.4,
Photogenics etc.
£349.99
( Amiga 1200^
Surfer Pack
Magic Pack
software + 260Mb
Hard drive 2Mb of
RAM& 14,400
Modem with
Internet/Web
software
£559.99
f Amiga A 1 200
Magic Pack+HD
Magic Pack
software t 1 70Mb
Hard drive &
Scala MM-300
software
£469.99
Chaos Software Pack
Pa*k consists of
Nkk Fattlo's Coif
Plnball F-tntaiic.
Syndicate
Ch.o. Enjtne
£19.99
First Starter Pack
• A I 200 dust cover
• 10 xOSDD disks * labels
• Top quality Joystick All for
• Deluxe mouse mal/ | A nA
• 3, A 1 200 games £, I ▼.▼¥
fc 'When purr.li.iwil with
M3M1438S *£28S.99l>S«
A4000T
MC68040-2S Mhz £2089.99
MC68060-50 Mhz £2359.99,
Hard Drives
3.5" Hard Disk Drives
with A 1 200/600 install kit
inc. software, cables and instructions
630Mb..£l85.99 850Mb...£l99.99
■OoGig.. £249.99 2 ■ I Gig-£379.99.
2.5" Hard Drives for A600/
A I 200 with installation kit
inc. software, screws, cables
and instructions
External Hard Drives
for all SCSI aware Amiga's
840Mb £239.99 1 .2Gig £299.99
2.0Gig £639.99 4.0Gig £ 1 069.99
lin- H.(jl. i|u.iM, SCSI-1 1 Qu.u>tii.n nietHiiuun w-tl. i 10m>
...... ....... I..I..O.J PSU. SCSI 10 Ktecnr,
Coding fan, .nil HD prrppinvlpuUtHinlnE .low...
Requires SCSI Interface, le. Squln-el/GVP
I additional adaptor may be leg, (n) 1 1 S.9S
3- Seagate mfmu ccvakt*
80Mb £89.99 l30Mb..£l09.99
l70Mb..£l 14.99 250Mb..£l39.99
340Mb..£l79.99 540Mb..£234.99
Quantum TOSHIBA
3.5" Hard Drive install kit £ 1 8.99
Include* wi up software, cabin and full
Irttototics
SuerapMXr*rtem 288 f^b^^Z^^Mn^
»UptollS.lMbp.(»41bls)»aasil.WFa. ^ ■ * * 7 JG
>,200bpi (.4
• Silent 4 Adaptive An:
• VI* Standard
• NCon-m Soltwai*
l*2Fai
■ ■ i CD n ...I..
[only
New!! SupraExpress 288
) LED D4.pl*,
I VJ4 Standard
t NComm SoRwu*
f Up to I I 5.100bps 1,42-Mt)
'■•"•• 3 "-" v """' 1 ""
spof&af
->
14,400 Data/ 1 4,000 Fax £ 1 1 1.99 !
I 9 33,600 Data/ 1 4,000 Fax £I93.99J|
Courier V34+
If rou ihouiht Vllhlt wi, (u,
£287!99
33,600 bps.
Yorkshire's Premiere InterNet Provider
W/M One-time connection fee of just £29.38 Then only £14.69 per month. IS-I
User-Modem ratio. Excellent Bandwidth. Comicted to a quality service.
WEB Space available. Call for further details.
AI200 1 MBRAMSp
tela
prfeelf 179-99
AI2O02MBRAM
£99.9«
AI2004MBRAM
£120. 9S
AI2008M8RAM
£189.91
For6088233Mh.:Cc
Pre
add
£35.01
'RlMAA5005l2kRAMn
o clock
£19.99
•RIMAASOO+IMbRAIM
£29.9*
PRIMAAftfJOIMbRAMn
o clock
£29.99
'1 Mb 72 Pin SIMM
• ■ ■
£59.99
2Mb72PinSIMM
4 Mb 72 Pin SIMM
£49.91
8Mb72PinSIMM
£145.9*
16Mb 72 pin SIMM
£269.91
1Mb 30 pin SIMM
£33.99
4Mb 30 pin SIMM
£109.99
256by4DRAM(DILi)
(*ach)£6.99
1 Mbby4ZIPPS
! each )£3 2.99
256by4ZIPPS
<e«h)£6.9«
Part exchange available i
n your old
memory, Cl
1 for pr
«:f"K.
Accelerator Cards
r* VIPER ^
Viperll-28 £119.99
Viper II- SO £199.99
Falcon 68040 RC £499.95
Monitors
lAMiiaJ
M1438S
.28 dp. I S/J8 KHi. all Amlp
modes, AGA compatible.
Stereo speakers, till and
swi*ell stand
only £295.99
or without speakers £264.99
Amitek I084S £199.991
!^-S
lonitor dust cover £6.99 .
Tabby
f^*fc
Tho amazing new graphics tablet for the Amiga
developed with first Computer. 94\ rated in
Amiga Shopper. Recfjirei 104 WB or above. ^
Scanners
Power Scan v4. £89.99
25* ffiote on AGA Amipi, M (/Kale non AGA
Power Scan Col. £ 1 74.99
I 24 bit colour scanner. 16 .7 million colour.
Epson GT 5000£399.99
I Colour flatbed wanner Parallel interlace
1 Epson GT8500£529.99
I Colour flatbed it .inner SCSI/Parallel interface-
Art Dept Pro software
Power software + cable
+ cable £99.99^
able £59.99 ^
MO Portable CD ROM
Requirei SCSI controller, eg Squirrel. GVP etc.
•scsi>.,™»„ £ 1 29.99
•ini»,d«n»br. T1i~Iii>T.iiii 1*1*1
• (!.'...; o, Mir: power. % ||Qnu /Mini Tim.
• K.ia,k mWll-u^^n CO tAuto CO option buaom
Squirrel scsiu
lnterface*£45.00
Surf Squirrel
SCSI-1 1 Interface
*£79.95
•Whan bought with any modem
SCSI de-Ice '99.9S if bought i
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(art- B bo. Am.Eil AJOOO'IOOO el
(Internal SCSI CD ROM drives)
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Toshiba 370 1 Bx6.7 Speed £319.99
Toshiba CD ROM drive* are suitable to fit
Inside AdOOO systems.
Amiga Technologies
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Quadspeedcxicrn.il f'^'iO Qft
CD-Rom Drive, for tAJ7i77
.AI200,vi.-iPCMCIA. N..n.Mtt,o...Mf 1 .. ....-^
im^ll SCSI Enclosures
Single Case £69.99 Dual Case £89.99
Hewlett Packard CD-R 4020i
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Cm* you. n. CO BOM", un) CO-Auil-
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•->'
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Zip tools available separately £ I 6.99 J
fSyquestEZ-135 £234.99
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CIA BS20A17O controller £18.99
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Saitck Mcgagripll
^^2
£ 1 2.99
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£14.99 fits any Amiga
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(gT,
i Encyclopedia 2
~_)
Aminet 8/9/ 1
Amine.! set I collection! Aminet M)
Aminet set 2 coOection (Aminet $-3 )
£12.49
£24.49
£24.49
I Amos PD CD Ver 2. £ 1 6,99
I Animation* (Double) £ 1 7.49
I Artworx £8.99
I Anaisins 2 (Double) £ 1 7.49
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I CAM (Double) £22.49
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I Eric Schwartz CD £24.99
| Demo CD 2 £8.99
le 2 £11.99
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|CanonBJ30 £184.99
I Portable mono printer. JO pi E * ASF built .n. All CMIjenpnntenha.e »
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High quJlitf mono printer, virtual 710 dpi. Tractor feed opdonal at £14.99
NewJ'CanonBJilO £229.99 Citizen Printiva 600c £399.99
Stylus Colour II £335.99
.»rr.nty 720 dpi, 4ppm Bl„ . . Ipprn Colour.
£135.99 Stylus Colour lis £249.99
710dpi. 2,Sppm Btatlt. Ippm Colour.
Stylus 820 £219.99
720 dpi, 7-5ppm Black. Colour Upgradeabk-
mMMIMi
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a printer, virtual 720 dpi
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600.600 dpi up to 6 p. p.'" mono, Ip/p/m colour
£145.99 HP 5L Laser printer £449.99
4 p-plm, 600 dpi, t Mb of flam.
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LED laser printer. ■• pfpfm, 1Mb of Ram.
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LED laser primer, t p/plm r 1Mb ol Ram.
Miscellaneous
,ter Switch Bok 2 way £ 1 2.99
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Printer Stands (Universal) £4.99
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3 Metre printer cable £6,99
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MPtrn pr inter cable £ 1 2.99
[Parallel port extension cable £9.99,
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Ckizen Swift; ABC mono £3.99
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Star LC90 mono ribbon £4.99
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Star LCI 0/1 00 colour £7.99
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Disks
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50 x £25.99 500 x £142.99
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Disk labels x500 tt.99
Disk labels x 1 000£9.99
Issue 62
May 1996
ShopperNews
DTP services offered
We have had an encouraging response to our plea a
few issues ago for people who can offer Amiga printing
services to our readers. We have details of two more
companies this month:
• Printout offer DTP services including scanning, film
and bromide output to a high resolution imagesetter
and colour inkjet printing. For details and prices
contact them at Printout, Rock House, Wheatsheaf
Corner, Shiney Row, County Durham DH4 4QX, or call
» 0191 385 6591.
• Enlightenment Systems can handle colour or mono
scanning, overlay of artwork or high quality text on to
existing images, conversion of image files to Amiga or
PC format, high quality colour or mono printing up to
A4, lamination, binding and they can even produce
customised colour greetings cards for you. Contact
Enlightenment on « 01387 254195.
Future vision
The UK's leading Internet magazine
.net (published by Future
Publishing, of course), has brought
out three new books for Internet
users. Called the Future Visions
series, these books review every
site they can find concerned with
their chosen subjects; they also
contain
advice on
navigating
the Internet,
with all the
jargon
explained.
The first
of the
trilogy from
.net is
Rexecute offer
Music And The Internet which
"highlights the enormous synergy
between music lovers and
computer technology"! The book
takes a tour through every type of
music site you could think of which
can be found on the Internet.
The much more interestingly-
titled Sex And The Internet has
been written by Dave Wnder who's
name you may know because he
has contributed to Amiga Shopper
on many occasions. It contains
material on anything connected to
sex and relationships on the Net:
from dating to pornography.
The third book, SciFi And The
Internet covers - you guessed it! -
anything and everything that could
Three new
books from
Ihe makers
of.net.
be classed as science fiction to be
found on the Net.
The books costs £1 2.99 each
and they are available from all the
major bookstores.
Amiga Shopper readers can save £4.95
off the brand new ARexx compiler from
Horizon Software. Rexecute normally retails
for £1 4.95, and you can buy it for only £1
by taking advantage of our exclusive offer.
If you want to know more about
Rexecute turn to our review of the program
on page 43.
Please note that this offer is only valid
until Tuesday, 30th April 1996. Photocopies
of this form will not be accepted.
,'.i 3 7i it/fr
822
2,848
838
13,398
458
13,518
468
[dates .
dates. into
S l tS-.°..i»««
a. eei . ,
Q. 881. info
I rexel . if J
1 rsxel.iff
Titbits
Quantum Leap
Quantum Leap have obtained the
Vidi range of digitisers previously
available from Rombo and re-
released them. The Vidi 24RT will
sell for £149 and the Pro version
for £249. Quantum Leap can be
contacted on « 01 506 461 91 7.
AS will be looking at the models
in detail next month.
Towers and
Shuttles
Blittersoft have released details of
a set of new Tower systems and a
selection of Shuttle (daughter)
boards. The Shuttles are available
for A1 200, A1 500, A3000 and
A4000 models. As an example,
the A1200 version offers: 7xZorro
III (5DMA), 6xPC ISA, 2xVideo,
1 xCPU expansion slot, 1 xreal time
clock and 4xSIMM sockets for
memory. Coming with a choice of
tower units and 230 watt power
supply, that unit will cost
£499.95. For details of other
specifications, contact Blittersoft
on » 0198 261466.
$U*
Name
Credit Card no
Address
.Post Code
Phone Number.
Rexecute
Expiry Date
c
_£10
Customers outside the UK add £4.00 for overseas delivery.
Method of payment Access □ Visa U Cheque □ PO !
Please make cheques payable to: Horizon.
All prices include posting, packing and VAT.
Send form to: Horizon Software, 15 St. Nicholas Road, Tillingham,
Southminster, Essex, CMO 7SO.
Do not send cash. Use the methods of payment listed above. EEC
customers registered for VAT, please quote your registration number:
Photocopies of this form cannot be accepted.
AMS/62
Amiga shopper 19
ShopperFeature
^^H~CanD<r
John Kennedy
Programming
with
We are giving away CanDo 2.51 on our Coverdisks this month, and we asked John Kennedy to
help you understand just how much you can achieve with this powerful authoring system...
"CanDo is very
powerful, so
there is a lot of
information to try
and absorb."
CanDo is not like any other
programming language,
because of the way in
which it combines a point
and click interface with a
more traditional script-based approach.
For example, you can make CanDo display
an IFF image either by typing in the
command "ShowPicture" into the script, or
by clicking on the Picture Icon. If you click
on the icon, the necessary script
commands are automatically inserted.
A CanDo program is called a "deck",
because it consists of one or more "cards". One
card at a time is displayed on the screen, either
on a custom screen display or in a Window on
an existing screen. Some applications have one
card, some have many. The cards may contain
"objects" such as items of text, an image, a
button or some other element. Each object may
also have an associated script: for example, a
card may contain a button. When the button is
clicked it triggers a script which forces CanDo
to move to a different card.
CanDo decks can be saved and loaded to
disk. It is also possible to convert a deck into a
stand-alone application which you can pass
around your friends. However, they will also
need to have CanDo installed on their system to
be able to run the application.
CanDo is very powerful, so there is a lot
of information to try and absorb before you can
be happy creating and running your own
programs. Before we get to a real, working
example program, here is a explanation of
some of the more useful icons. Remember that
there is on-line help available: position the
pointer over the control panel and press the
HELP button on the keyboard.
Example project
To get started, we are going to create a deck
with two cards (see steps 1 to 1 2 pictured to
your right and on page 22). Each card will have
a different message on it, and there will be
buttons to enable us to move between them.
You should try and master this simple project
Guide to CanDo's main toolbar
This switch enables
the user to either
test the application,
(Browse it), or edit
the application
(Design it).
Click here
to edit (or
add, or
copy) a
card.
Disk activity
object.
Error control
object.
Deck navigation
tools. From left
to right, top to
bottom:
previous card,
goto card, next
card, first card
and last card.
These buttons control
object creation and
manipulation. Select one
of the settings before
clicking on one of the
primary object icons to
the immediate right
20 Amigashopper
Input field
object.
May 1996
Xtra tools menu. These are
where the less-used tools
are stored, including the
bookmark tool, general
preferences and settings
and joystick control.
CanDo sub-routines object.
Brush animation object.
Sound object.
Timer object.
Issue 62
John Kennedy
CanDo
ShopperFeature
Card/List
CardJ
♦1 Add I
i Edit
♦| Delete |
♦| Copy of|
Exit
Step 1: Starling from scratch, you'll see that you
already have a blank window. This is the first
(and so far only) card in the deck. Click on the
card editing button. You should see a window
like this, a list of all the cards currently in the
deck. Click on Edit.
Card/Editor
CaNNane...
Scripts... Objects. . .
Messages... Beforeftttachnent
Ity First Card
Fron a Sub-Deck Mtxhcit
Frc*i Parert-Deck Sef oreDetachoent
Cancel
Step 2: Now we are in the Card/Editor
screen. Click on the name of the card and
rename it The buttons on the right determine
which scripts associated with this card we are
going to edit. For the moment, click on
"AfterAttachment".
Step 3: The Script Editor. This script is started
every time the card is displayed. You can type in
commands on the left, but let's use the icons.
Scroll the list of tools to the right until you find
the letter "A". Click it. Now we can add text, so
click the "Set Text and Font..." button.
, , Text This is ny first Card!
Step 4: You should see the text editing window
appear. Here you can select the font you wish to
use, the colour and the actual text. As you
experiment, you should see the text appear in
the screen above. Get something close to this
and click on OK
Ord: Hy First C.rd' tv>r.l -nH^.ll.[»i.nf
'E
rit C.r.r.H.61
Step 5: Now click on the Position Text button.
You can move the pointer around until you are
happy with where the text is located. Click OK
and you'll get back to the script editing screen.
Now look at what CanDo has automatically
coded for you. Click on the OK in the title.
Position the pointer over a keyword and press
the Help key for information on each command.
Button/list
Button/Add
You ba«e requested to add i nw button
First ve need the origin of tbe new button,
then tbe size for tbit button.
K Cancel;
_5j
Exit i
Step 6: We are back at the card editing window,
so click OK. We are back at the card selector
window, so click Exit. We are back at the control
panel. Make sure the Add/Edit/Copy button is
set to ADD and click on the Button object. Click
on ADD and you'll be asked to sketch out the
size of the button. We will use a special type of
button, so it doesnt matter what size.
before being tempted to add embellishments, in
case you get lost. It is vital to understand the
basics before getting carried away and adding
interactive animations.
Script Editor
The Script Editor is the most powerful part of
CanDo because it is here where you create the
underlying programs which determine what
your program actually does. A thorough
understanding of all the commands is essential,
so you should read all the on-line documentation
carefully, and also look through the example
decks to see how they work.
You can either type commands into the
Script Editor, or use the Helper icons down the
right-hand side to write the script for you. You
CanDo is perfect for
creating helpful
multimedia application
software. You could
create a guide to your
local town, for example.
Use CanDo to make a slideshow of your holiday
snaps. You could even record the finished show
to video tape with a genlock.
Issue 62
May 1996
can edit the script created by the icons as
though you had typed it yourself, so the icons
are an easy way to get started.
The icons are shown in the "Helper icons"
box on page 23, along with a description of the
code they produce. Remember, you can scroll
the list up and down. If you want help on a
particular command in the script, place the
pointer over it and press the Help key. Press the
Help key from the main window for general help.
The Script Editor is called upon many times.
For example, you can write a script to occur
when a button is pressed (as in our example), or
when the button is double-clicked, dragged or
released. In fact, from the Button editor screen
you can write a script for ALL of these events if
that is want you want to do.
You can attach script to practically
everything that can happen in a CanDo deck,
and the most useful "happenings" are
represented by the icons which appear on the
main bar (displayed in the annotated diagram
on page 20). For example, when you click on
the Timer icon you can define the script to
take place after a predefined delay or at a
particular time. Your associated script could
shuffle the deck to the next card in a slideshow
every 1 seconds.
In a similar fashion the Keylnput icon
attaches script to individual key presses, and the
DiskActivity icon attaches scripts to the insertion
Amgashopper 21
ShopperFeat
CanDo
John Kennedy
Button/Editor
Nm Ih first bitten |
. . . , Hwiz UTTi
^ fcrtjW]
^flJtsT^:!
((click 1 j
Style itti
In, EMBOSSEP
Text / High!
taw J CMLBE
r Options
Selected . .
ght Disabled
« ! Toggle J
Release
MMIickl
i 1
Cancel |
tiril: **» linl kit..' lm\: '(ria*~
Step 7: Edit the button. There are three types:
Area is a location on the screen, Text is a word
or words, and Image is an IFF brush. Select Text
and you'll see the Text Editor again. Enter "Click
me!" and OK it to get back. You can also choose
the colour and outline style of the button. When
you've finished, click on the "Click" button in the
Scripts part of the window.
Card/Editor
(aril to,,, Jj Scripts...
Copy_of_Hy First Card Kessages... MortfttaM
Fron a Sub-Deck msmim
FrM Parent-Deck BeforeDetachnent
Cancel
Step 10: Now edit the second card to make the
text read "My Second Card". Click on the
"AfterAttachment" button again, and you'll see
the script we created. Try changing the fonts
and colours as well to make it as different as
possible. You can alter these by either deleting
the existing items or by using the Text icon to
make new ones.
jjlHloi
.' ]*i"h/&0(ftl(.5.d"
— i~
J '&
Step 8: Now we're at the script which is executed
when the button is pressed. At present this has
little to do (we want to make it move to another
card, but we only have one), so let's add a
sound effect. Click on the Single Speaker icon,
then select one of the supplied sound effects.
You'll end up with something like this. Click on
OK, OK, Exit to get back to the main panel.
Second card
Clitk Mo '
Step 11: Now we can add a little more action.
Go back to the main panel, select Edit and
edit the buttons, one at a time. In each, click
on the Decks icon in the Click Script and you
will be able to add some movement: In other
words, when the first button is clicked, the
second card Is selected and vice versa.
Interactive entertainment!
Step 9: Make sure the Add/Edit/Copy is set to
Edit, and click on the Card Selector again. You'll
see your card listed. Now click on "Copy of" and
your first card will be duplicated. Now we have
two cards in the deck, although at the moment
both are the same. Set the name of the second
to be "My Second Card".
Step 12: To try out your new deck, click on the
navigation buttons to get back to the first card
and then click on the Browse/Design button.
Now you can try out your deck!
or removal of a floppy disk. You can also control
what happens when the right mouse is pressed
or a slider control is adjusted. Every action can
have an associated script, and every script is
created in the same way from the Script Editor.
Perhaps the most important scripts are
those which are triggered automatically when a
card is first used in Browse mode. In our
example project, we associate a script to the
"AfterAttachment" button. This means that once
the card has been displayed on-screen our
script goes to work. You should use the "before
attachment" script to pre-load animations or
other data before the card is displayed and use
CanDo's easy to use
authoring system makes
it the ideal tool for
creating educational
software. It's easy to make
interactive applications.
If you run a shop you can use CanDo as a
"virtual shop assistant", or as an eye-catching
window display system.
22 Amiga shopper
I May 1996
a "before detachment" script to clear this data
from buffers. These, and the sub-deck options,
are advanced facilities which you won't
necessarily need to get started.
Workbench and
custom decks
As you can see from the screenshots, it is
possible to create decks which run on the
Workbench like normal Amiga utilities, as well as
using custom screens to display images with
hundreds of colours. To define what your cards
look like, use the Edit Windows icon on the
main menu (see annotation on page 20). This
option is very important, because it determines
how your card will look.
The options include opening the screen on
the Workbench in which case it will inherit your
particular Workbench settings such as the
resolution or number of colours. Alternatively,
you can open it on a Custom Screen. This is
the way in which my images of the car, skier and
city were created. On the right-hand side
of the Window control requestor you will see
a choice between "Normal Window" and
"Picture Window". Pick the first and you can
define the mode, number of colours and
resolution of your display. Pick the latter and
Issue 62
John Kennedy
CanDo
ShopperFeature
you can load an image to make the background
display of your card.
The Attributes settings define if the
Window has particular features such as a
CloseGadget. As you would expect, it is
possible to associate scripts with each of these
- the default causes the deck to quit when the
CloseGadget is selected.
Conclusion
If you have got this far, you are probably still
pretty confused, but don't panic! CanDo is such
a powerful program that it can be hard to know
where to start or what to do next. There are so
many icons and buttons it is easy to get lost.
Don't expect to master CanDo in one sitting.
There is so much to get through, you will need
to invest some time. The rewards will be worth
it, though - no other programming system gives
you so much control over the Amiga in such an
easy-to-use manner.
For your first, solo CanDo program, try
creating a deck which acts as a slideshow
program for your favourite IFF images. All the
information you need is here, and our example
deck can easily be expanded. Once you get it
working, you can start to add embellishments
such as keyboard, mouse or automatic
operation. Then you can experiment with sound
effects, animations, ARexx control, hypertext...
With CanDo you can do practically anything!
We will be running a serious of tutorials
explaining in more depth how CanDo
works and how you can use it to write your
own programs, starting next month. ■
Helper icons
AREXX
3@eT
=(182,18)
=(193,10)
DOS
<Si^
11^
IArexx: This icon enables you
to include ARexx support in
programs. You can both send
and receive ARexx messages,
so your CanDo program can act
as both an ARexx-friendly
application and as a controller
for other ARexx programs.
2 Bookmark icon: Click on
this icon and the script is
"marked". Double-click on the
"LastBookMark" or "Bookmark"
text on the right-hand side of
the main panel and the Script
Editor is operated where the
Bookmark was placed. This
gives greater speed when one
wants to edit particular scripts.
3BrushAnim Helper: Select
a BrushAnim (such as a
file created with Deluxe
Paint) and control its position
and movement.
4 Debug: Check through the
script for errors, reporting
any bugs or programs.
5 Card Helper: Insert
references to other cards,
such as simply the name, or
more advanced options such as
moving to other cards.
6 Co-ordinate Helper: Put up
cross hairs on the screen
and Insert the co-ords at the
point when the button is
pressed. Useful for accurately
lining up objects entered into
the script by hand.
7 Rectangle Helper: Insert two
sets of co-ordinates as a
rectangle is drawn out on the
screen by the user.
8 DOS Helper: Enables the
user to select an AmigaDOS
command or program and
inserts the code which enables
it to be executed.
9 Field Helper: A field is
where the user can input
data into the program. This
helper creates the necessary
script commands.
■| A File Help: Select a
I (/filename and insert it and
its path into the script.
1-t Text Helper: Creates the
I script commands for
choosing and positioning text in
any colour and any style or font.
It's useful because it generates
code which you'll often use.
•f A Layout Helper: If you want
I J— to display a lot of text on
screen this helper will make it
easier to position it. You can
wrap the text around existing
objects by altering the default
rectangular outline.
■4 OPaint Helper: A complete
I Opaint package for creating
shapes and objects on your
window. Draw what you need,
and when you click OK all the
scripting commands appear.
Edit them if required.
-| jt Picture Helper: Select and
I ^load an IFF picture file in
the Window. This is one way of
creating a slideshow program.
■J |?Sound Effect: Choose a
lOsound effect and play It.
"f CSound Sequence: Choose
I Oseveral sound effects, and
play them back in sequence.
CanDo 3.0 upgrade offer
ow you have the powerful authoring program
CanDo 2.51 from Inovatronics, given away free
on our Coverdisks this month, why not
upgrade to version 3? We have organised
some special, bargain prices which are exclusive to
readers of Amiga Shopper.
You can buy CanDo 3.0 from us for only £139;
that's a massive saving of £80 off the RRP of the
program. Registered users of CanDo 2.51 only pay £77
to upgrade to version 3.
You can also save lots of money when
buying CanDo 3.0 plus the debugger program
CanDeBug. These programs are available
together for only £195, which means that you
save a huge £85 when you buy them both from
Amiga Shopper.
All you have to do to take advantage of our superb
offers, is fill in the form below with all your details and
post it to the address mentioned. Or just call our Mail Order
hotline on = 01225 822511.
| Title _
I Your address
I
I
Initials
Surname
Method of payment (please tick one):
Cheque □ Postal Order Q
Credit Card: Visa \^_ Access Q Mastercard ._
| Post code
I Your signature
. Description _
.Telephone.
Card No:
I CanDo 3.0
CanDo 3.0 + CanDeBug.
Price
£139_
£195 _
Total £
.Registered
.users upgrade price
£77
Expiry date:
£107
I (Please add £4 for postage and packing outside the UK)
Please make your cheques payable to Future Publishing Ltd.
Post your order to: Amiga Shopper, Future Publishing Limited,
FREEPOST (BS4900), Somerton, Somerset TA1 1 6BR.
Or call our Order Hotline on « 01225 822511.
You may photocopy this form.
Issue 62
May 1996 I
Amiga sho ttcr 23
Shopp
WOA
Sue Grant
The prototype of a brand
new Amiga will be on the
Amiga Technologies stand at
the World Of Amiga 1996;
there will be plenty of other
new Amiga products at the
show too. Be there!
If you are serious about your Amiga,
the place you need to be on the
weekend of 13th and 14th April is
at the World Of Amiga show in
London. Amiga Technologies GmbH
are sponsoring the event which is
designed to "relaunch the machine as a
key player on the UK computing scene".
The show will feature a games arcade; high
end applications; retailers and a technical advice
centre run by the Independent Commodore
Products Users Group (ICPUG). And you can
meet the Amiga Shopper team on the Future
Publishing stand (oh, and the Amiga Format and
Amiga Power teams tool).
We have listed all the exhibitors we knew
were attending the show at the time of going to
press on our floor plan, but there will be plenty
of others by the time you read this; apologies to
anyone we have missed out!
"All the components are in place for an
Amiga event, the like of which we have not seen
since the heyday of the machine," boast the
show's organisers.
If you turn to page 27 you can enter our
special WOA show competition to win an Amiga
Surfer pack. Just fill in the voucher and hand it in
to the Future Publishing stand.
Where and when?
The World Of Amiga will be held at the Novotel
Exhibition Centre in Hammersmith, London; and
the dates are Saturday, 1 3th April and Sunday,
14th April 1996.
How much?
Tickets to the show cost £7 for adults and
£5.50 for children. You can book in advance by
calling the credit card hotline « 01369 706346.
Show guide
1 3G Media
■P
Wizard
Develop merts
ENI&P
Amiga
Techn< logies
Amiga
Techw *
logies
Pou er
Cornputi
PD
Soft
Epic Future
Marketing publishing
24 Amxsashopfer
Turn the page for your
May 1996
I Issue 62
Sue Grant
WOA
S
Who will be there?
There will be lots of Amiga companies taking
stands at the show - we have reproduced a
floor plan of the venue, indicating the companies
attending so far. There are too many exhibitors
for us to list all their details, but here's a brief
run-down of some of the highlights of the show:
Show highlights
Amiga Technologies GmbH
Amiga Technologies have taken the largest
stand at the World Of Amiga, of course.
They will be demonstrating the prototype of
their new "Super Amiga". This new machine
comes complete with quad-speed CD-ROM; it
uses a 680EC30/40MHz, main processor; it
features two SIMM sockets on the motherboard
which allows a memory of up to 1 28Mb and it
has a flexible expansion bus which can take
turbo cards, graphics cards (including MPEG)
and multi-serial cards.
"The new Amiga will be shipped with a
revised version 3.2 of the Amiga OS.The new
features and the many enhancements give the
system more power and flexibility," said Gilles
Bourdin of AT. We are dying to get our hands on
Siren
Sottwdi
n
Ey etec h
Group
k^|_ !
Exhibition
Entrance
rVTVL
HiS >ft
Blitlersott
HiQ
Gas einer
Hgita
ntern itioni il
Snap
Coi nput^rs
T<A Amiga
Theatre
Ref reshm ant
Area!
Floorplan of
Novotel Exhibition
Centre
V.
a
this new Amiga. There will also be the chance to
examine the Amiga Surfer pack, for those who
haven't seen it yet.
Digita International
Digita will be showing off the power of
Wordworth 5 (reviewed on page 36 of this
issue). They will also have Wordworth 5SE,
which is a special version of the program
developed for A1 200 users with only one disk
drive and 2Mb of memory. We will be taking a
look at Wordworth 5SE next month.
Also on show will be Organiser 2, the new
version of their personal information manager,
which we awarded 91 per cent and a Star buy
to when it was reviewed in our January issue.
The there's Datastore 2, the new version of
Digita's successful database program.
Epic Marketing
Ever wanted to make movies like Jurassic Park?
That blockbuster's success was down to the
excellent special FX used. You may not have the
budget needed for such a huge venture, but for
more modest projects, Epic Software's new
Special FX CD-ROM could prove invaluable.
This new CD contains advice on how to make
movies on the Amiga; it is the first in a series
and concentrates on explaining how to produce
low-cost special effects. And it will be seen for
the first time at the WOAI
The Special FX CD costs £29.99 and will
be available from Epic on -b 0500 131 486.
Future Publishing
Meet the teams from Future's three market-
leading Amiga magazines; Amiga Shopper,
Amiga Format and Amiga Power.
We will be running a round table
conference with around 20 key players in
the Amiga market place. We will also have back
issues of all our magazines, plus special
subscription offers on the stand. And don't
forget to hand in your competition entries!
Gasteiner
Gasteiner will have 1 5 new peripherals on show.
These include a new controller for the A500; a
PCMCIA controller for the A1 200; three
accelerators for the A500/1 200/4000 and a
range of new mice and trackballs.
HiQ
On the HiQ stand will be the Siamese System
for the A1 200, which integrates the Amiga and
the PC (reviewed in our March 1996 issue). The
main programmer of Photogenics, Paul Nolan,
will also be on the HiQ stand. Why? Because
he is writing the Siamese software for Hi-Q.
The excellent range of JTS hard disk drives
will also feature on their stand.
HfSoft Systems
HiSoft have a packed stand, including the first
public showing of the Surfin' Squirrel, which is
their new SCSI interface. The Squirrel MPEG
chance to win an Amiga Surfer pack!
Issue 62 I
_r
_r
• mm •*•
infimtiv
suitable for all AMIGA™ models
through mainboard exchanging frame
drive bays expandable as you like
only limited t>y your controllers' capabilities
modular expandable
through Top-Case™ system
easy access from all directions
through SNAP and CLICK system
„plug and play" drive mounting-frames
And now for some technical specifications
the left pictures give you an imagination of the internal con-
struction of the infmitiv™ tower system. The red marks and
lines show some extended drive frames in both the front- and
the back area of the tower. Further, you can see an Top-
Case™, mounted on the towers' top, which explains the
expandability of our solution. Each Top-Case™ expands your
infinitiv™ tower for an 5,25"/ 3,5" drive bay, ready to use
and easy to assemble. Additional drives such as CD-ROMs,
harddisks, streamer tapedrives etc. will snap in easiely by
using our sophisticated „click and snap" system.
micronik' accessoires
RAM card, expandable up to 8MB,
incl. clock and math co-pro socket with standard
PS/2 SIMM modules
Keyboard case for AMIGA™ 1200,
for the original keyboard, solderfrce assembly £29
Keyboard case for AMIGA 7 " 1200,
..£ 42 incl. Interface, spiral cable and flexcable for external
connection of the original internal keyboard £75
micronik' infinitiv - tower
infinitiv™ A 1200 tower, £ 169
infinitiv™ PC-tower, £ 169
RAM card with 4 MB RAM,
incl. clock and math co-pro socket £ 109
PC-keyboard interface for the AMIGA™ 1200,
Installation through solderfree flexcable £ 42
AMIGA™ 1200 Interface/keyboard extension,
installation through solderfree flexcable, both inter-
faces are connected through an 5-polc plug £ 55
3-way ROM-switch for the AMIGA™ 1200,
suitable for ROM V 1.3, 2.0x & 3.0 or 3.1 (pair) £ 20
AMIGA™ 1200 battery backed up realtime- clock,
(prevents your A1200 from beeing loosing its' mind after
restart ! ) £ 8
AMIGA™ 1200 internal keyboard,
original keyboard for the A1200 £20
VGA-adapter for AMIGA™ 1200/4000,
from 23 pole on 15 pole multi sync/VGA £ 8
POWERSTATION external powersupply,
for the AMIGA™ 1200 ( i.e. A500, A600, through
standard plug ), 23 amperes, featuring on/off-switch
and additional con-nectors for 1 x 3.5"and 3 x 5,25"
devices ! £ 55
A 1200 internal original disk drive,
suitable for the A1200, 880 kb, incl.
mounting material £29
infinitiv™ A 1200 Z tower case,
incl. ZORRO -IP" bus board, PC Keyboard..
£295
Double IDE-bus harddrive adapter ,
for using 2.5" und 3.5" harddisk drives at
the AMIGA m 1200, incl. powercable
External disk drive,
suitable for all AMIGAs™ ( maximum 4 drives ),
featuring on/ off switch and connector for aditional
..£ 10 drives on the back, 880kb £ 38
A1200 infinitiv™ tower, (AMIGAkeyb.&lnterface)....£ 190
A1200Z MAGIC infinitiv™ tower,
featuring 5 ZORRO'"-ll slots and 3 PC-ISA
siots, 170 MB hdd, magic software-package £ 680
BUS 1200 Z1, AMIGA™ 1200 bus board,
featuring 5 ZORRO m -ll slots and 3 PC-ISA slots £ 169
BUS 1200 Z2, AMIGA™ 1200 bus board,
featuring 5 ZORRO™-ll slots, 3 PC-ISA and an optional
video-slot, additional this version contains even an
PS/2 - SIMM-socket £ 199
A4000 infinitiv™ tower,
featuring 7 ZORRO™-ll slots. 3 PC-ISA and
an video slot £ 275
BUS 4000 Z, AMIGA™ 4000 bus board,
featuring 7 ZORRO™-ll / -III slots, 6 PC-
ISA and 2 video-slots £ 169
We are present at THE WORLD OF AMIGA in London / 1 3th to 1 4th April t
wiTcceptthefdowingpaymen, /^K^ FaSc °0°0 it IVlU ll £38
Prices subject to change without notice. All AW AW ^ ™*
" prices include VAT but exclude delivery ! ■ fl M CPOniK Computer Service
All trademarks acknowledged. BruckenstraBe 2 • 51379 Leverkusen
Sue Grant
WOA
will also make its debut at the show. This
add-on enables you to play MPEG format full
motion video CDs.
Termite TCP, CinemaFont, CinemaWorld
and CinemaTree will be shown off for the
first time on the HiSoft stand too. There will
also be their latest range of Squirrel SCSI
peripherals: hard drives, CD-ROMs, zip drives
and Jaz drives.
ICPUG (Independent Commodore
Products Users Group)
Members of ICPUG will be on hand throughout
the exhibition offering advice on all things Amiga
to anyone who asks for it!
LH Publishing
The publishers of DTP magazine EM
(incorporating JAM) will be sharing a stand with
E.M.Computergraphic. They intend to have
several competitions for showgoers to enter -
they will also have some special show offers.
They also want to meet their subscribers - and
to give advice to anyone who needs it.
Power Computing
Power's stand will feature the first public
showing of its 1 996 range of products,
including the DKB rapid-fire SCSI-2 controller,
the Power Tablet, Breathless (their first game),
an A2000 040/060 accelerator and an A4000
040/060 accelerator. Power's managing
director promised that visitors could also take
advantage of the "many bargains" on his stand.
Zeus Developments
Another Amiga development to have its debut at
the WOA is a brand new bulletin board software
package from Zeus Developments. The program
is actually called Zeus and contains many
industry-standard communications protocols;
there will be a hands-on demonstration of the
program available so you can try it for yourself.
Other big guns
All the other big guns in the Amiga world will be
at the show too, including Blittersoft, Eyetech,
E.M.Computergraphic, Golden Image, IDG
Media, Wizard Developments, EMAP, PD Soft,
Micronics, Siren Software, Silica and Snap
Computers. There will be other Amiga
companies there who haven't been mentioned
here - only because we go to press too early to
get the final list in! See you there.
(If you really can't make it, you won't miss
out, because we will have a full report from the
World Of Amiga after the show.) ■
Win! A1J200 Surfer pack!
If you want the chance to win an
Amiga Surfer pack, get yourself
down to the World Of Amiga show
at the Novotel and hand in your entry
coupon to the chaps on the Future
Publishing stand.
All entries to this competition
must be received by 3.30pm on
Sunday, 1 4th April 1 995. The winner
will be drawn on Monday 1 5th April
and will be notified by post.
Get connected!
We have one Amiga Surfer pack to
give away; it is worth £599.99
and consists of an A1 200 fitted
with a 260Mb hard drive and
2Mb RAM, and it includes all the
Internet software you need, plus
a 1 4.4bps modem. And it's
pictured on the left!
Amiga Shopper A1 200 Surfer pack competition
Enter your details here and answer the questions. Then cut
out this form (or photocopy it) and take it along with you to
the World Of Amiga show where you can hand it in to the
Future Publishing stand. Please do not send it to the
Amiga Shopper offices!
Name:
Which of the following do you own/intend to own?
-I
Address:
Post Code
PlayStation
Saturn
PC
3DO
Jaguar
CD-i
SNES
Mega Drive
Ultra 64
Own
□
□
□
□
□
□
D
□
□
Intend to own
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
□
Tel no:
Are you already a subscriber to Amiga Shopper?
Yes □ No D
Are you already connected to the Internet?
Yes □ No D
I I Tick here if you don't wish to receive details of other
special offers from Future Publishing and other companies.
Issue 62 I
May 1996 I
Amiga shopper 27
ShopperFeature
How to...
David Taylor
Ultimate DIY,
In the second part of our DIY feature, Dave Taylor
looks at even more ways to expand and enhance
your Amiga. "How to..." aims to
show you all the things you
need to know to get the most
from your machine.
•VA«e.B9
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St
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w
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ME
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mm
David Taylor
How to...
V~
>f!perFeature
Use a
hard drive
Dave Taylor is your guide on
our tour of hard drives and how
to do anything with them.
ast month, we showed you how to
physically fit a hard drive. Following
on from that, here is a guide to
maintaining your new drive. Most
drives, so long as they are bought
from an Amiga dealer, will come ready
prepared for use with your Amiga. However, if
yours hasn't, or if you ever want to make a
change to your drive, you'll need to set it up
using hard drive software.
To do this, you need to use the
HDToolBox program that can be found
on the HDInstall disk for
Workbench 2.1+ users.
Other users will
need to
obtain
a similar
program
from a PD
library.
The best
alternative is a
program called
RDPrep 3.91 and,
if you have access
to Aminet, can be
found in disk/misc as
a file called
rdp391.lha. We will
assume that you will be
using the standard
Commodore HDToolBox,
although the basics are the
same for both programs even
if the interfaces are different.
Load the HDInstall disk
and open the HDTools drawer to
locate HDToolbox and load it. (If
you are working on changing a hard
drive, you should find the program on
your drive in the Tools drawer on your
boot partition.) Once it has loaded,
click on the drive you want to operate on
(if you only have one hard drive fitted then
r it will be the only one to show). Remember
that it will only show the number of physical
drives attached, not individual partitions.
Now click on Partition Drive and you will
Issue 62
move to the screen where you can adjust the
properties of the drive. At the top, the entire
drive is represented with a bar, split into
different sections. These are the partitions. It is
easier to cope with a hard drive, especially a
large one, if it is split sensibly into sections.
Each of these will show as a separate disk icon
on Workbench. A sensible split would be a boot
partition to contain all the Workbench programs,
fonts and libraries, etc; one for application
programs and, if you play them, one for games.
You might also want a separate one for you own
data. This is a good idea if you produce a lot of
material, such as multimedia, or if you want to
have a machine that can be used by other
people but with your data locked away safe from
prying eyes or deletion. If you don't produce that
much, then a separate folder, or drawer, on your
serious partition should suffice.
To set up the partitions, click on an area to
activate them and then size them. If you are
re-sizing an existing disk, you will find that you
need to make space by reducing an existing
partition before you can enlarge another or
create a new one. It might be easiest to delete
all existing partitions and start from scratch.
Clicking on New Partition will add one that can
be then sized using the slider. You can change
the name of the partition by clicking in the text
box and deleting the default name.
When you create your boot partition (the
one that will contain the Workbench files and
StartUp-Sequence - in other words be the
equivalent of booting your floppy Workbench
disk), remember that you will need quite a lot of
space because when you start to install
software to your new drive, you will find that
some files have to be installed to that partition in
order for the software to run. 1 0Mb will quickly
be filled up, but size the partition according
to the capacity of your drive.
The boot partition must have the
bootable option enabled or your
hard drive won't load automatically.
You might want to make more
complex changes to the drive,
such as the file system used. If
your drive is formatted to the old
WB1 .3 OFS, you won't get the most out
of your drive if you are using a WB2 or
above machine. To change these options,
you must click on the Advanced Options
button and the window will show a new
selection. For most people, the only ones
that should be of interest are the boot priority
and the Change button for the file system.
The boot priority is only applicable to the
bootable partition and should be set to zero.
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HDToolbox recognises the drives attached and
lets you pick the one to work on.
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RDPrep is the alternative disk prepping software
that can be obtained from Aminet.
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PMMIIOHIHfi
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May 1996
RDPrep works in a similar way to the official
HDToolbox from Commodore.
"When you create
your boot partition,
you will need quite
a lot of space."
This means that the Amiga will first attempt to
oad a floppy disk before booting the hard drive
- if you change this, you will find it hard to
boot a floppy disk and it will not speed up
the booting of your hard drive.
When you click on the Change
button, you will move to the screen that
controls the file system used. For Workbench 2
users the most likely system you will want to
use is the standard one set to Fast File
System (WB3 users may want directory
caching, which removes a tiny amount of
capacity from the drive, but speeds up
usage). This is also where you can adjust
the MaxTransfer rate of the drive. This
option is a hex number that sets the
maximum number of bytes that can be
transferred in one transfer. It might seem
strange that you would want to limit this, but
there are occasions when having this set too
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Selecting a drive and moving to the partition
screen enables you to make any changes.
Amiga shopper 29
ShopperFealure
How to...
David Taylor
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IfltMUitr ■ IHWI 1 Kotorwd klockt ot
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°' '" I
Advanced options enable you to adjust the
filesystem used, even to use a custom one.
high causes problems with software. If you don't
have any problems or haven't been advised to
change this, leave this option alone!
When everything is set to your satisfaction,
click on OK until you return to the initial screen.
You must then save the changes to your drive.
WARNING! This will destroy any data that has
previously been stored on your drive. It will be
lost. It is then perhaps best to click on the
Low-level Format button. This may not always be
necessary, but it will ensure that the disk is
ready for use with the Amiga.
You must then boot your Amiga with a
Workbench disk and format the individual
partitions. A quick format may suffice, but a
full format will also make sure that there are
no errors on the disk before you start. When
the partitions are formatted, you have a set of
large, blank disks. The bootable
partition must have the Workbench
files and programs from the other
««_-a standard disks. This can be done
Wf? from the HDlnstall disk, or you
could do it manually.
Your disk drive is now set
up to your own specifications.
*ffeplace a floppy thrive ^f\
...mairrtairi your drive
>/ «£
Once your drive is set up, you
need several programs to
keep everything working. The
first one is DiskSalv, which is
a must. This program can
recover files that you delete
by accident and repair a lot
of errors that can appear on
disks. A version of the
program is available from PD
libraries, although the new
version is commercial.
The second is ReOrg.
Whenever you use a disk, the
data is fitted on to the drive
any way it can, which means
that it might be split into
sections. This doesn't make
much difference to you and
you may never notice it, but
with large hard drives, it will
mean that opening a file
might send the drive head ail
over the place, which will be
slightly slower than if it could
read the data in a continuous
stream. This fragmentation
becomes more frequent as
you write and delete files
from the drive. ReOrg will
optimise your drive and fit
these segmented files back
together. Be aware that this
Hard drives tend
to get very
fragmented
because of writing
and deleting so
many files. ReOrg
will rectify this.
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operation carries a certain
risk of loss of data, although
I've never had a problem.
Last, but most important,
you need a backup program.
This will help you back up
partitions that store data you
can't afford to lose. Normally,
this will mean storing files on
floppy disks, although other
methods are available (see
storage feature in AS55).
These programs not only
copy files, they also calculate
the best fit and include
options to archive the data
so it takes up the least
amount of space possible.
There are plenty of backup
utilities available, many of
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Using file packers
enables you to get
more on to your
hard disk.
which are PD/Shareware;
such as MRbackup; included
on AS54's Coverdisks.
There are programs that
can expand the capacity of
your drive. They invisibly
pack and unpack data as it is
read and written to the drive.
One of the better programs
of this type is Arctic, (on
ASS5's disks). You can save
space by keeping your
programs stored on a
partition in a packed format
like PowerPacker
(StoneCracker is even
better). These methods will
mean that using your hard
drive is a little slower.
As for protecting your
drive or partition for privacy,
there are some password
programs, but these are
normally easily circumvented.
The most secure is Enigma II,
(on AS61's disks). It renders
a partition non-DOS until a
password is entered (never
put it on to a boot partition).
The program contains some
risk, but is reliable.
tVnscrew the
Amiga's casing,
including the
screws that hold
the drive in place.
Open up the Amiga.
Lift the drive up and
out. It should be
easy, if not check
you have removed
the right screws.
Remove the power lead;
you will need to use
something to flip the
little catch. Unplug
m the data ribbon.
I
Bring in the
new drive and
reconnect the two
leads. Place the
drive in the bay and
screw everything
back in.
30 Amiga shopper
I May 1996
I Issue 62
David Taylor
How to...
ShopoerFeature
Connect to
the WWW
So you have decided to fork
out for a modem, but how do
you get to those fabulous-
looking Web pages?
This is one of the most
frequently-asked questions
at Amiga Shopper. The
problems mainly arise
from the fact that in
order to get connected, you need
to install three packages correctly.
In fact, getting up and running is
easier than it sounds.
First, you need to get a suitable Internet
account (we're going to assume Demon,
.install AmiTC.
because it's the most common). Before starting
to install the software, you need three bits of
information about your account. You need to
know your account name, its password and your
IP address. You should obviously know the first
two already, but the third can be obtained by
logging on using a normal Comms package, like
NComm; or it is available from Demon, who
should notify you of it.
The first program that you need to install is
Magic User Interface (Mill), without which the
other programs won't run. The installation for
this is all done automatically through the
Commodore Installer.
The next program needed is the heart of the
World Wide Web (WWW) browsing, AmiTCP.
This package takes a little time to install,
although it's not actually difficult as long as
you follow the on-screen instructions. For a
step-by-step guide through the installation see
the box below.
When AmiTCP is installed, you need to
install the actual browser, which is called
AMosaic. Again, this is simple to install
using the Commodore Installer.
Before using the browser,
you should also check that your
Amiga has several other things
set correctly. You will definitely need
a JPEG datatype (and possibly
some others), because a lot of
pictures that appear on WWW pages
are JPEGs and so the datatype is
used to view them. The datatype can be
obtained from PD Houses or Aminet (it may be
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Starting the
script opens the
dialler window.
Now you can
link up to
FutureNet.
labelled as JFIF). You should also make sure
that your Workbench is displaying as many
colours as possible so that you can see the
pictures properly. This is done through the
screenmode preferences.
Wth all the software installed, it's best to
reboot. Then turn on your modem and double
click on the AMosaic program. A window will
open, but will have nothing in it. Open a Shell
and type "Link up". The Amiga will jump into
action and send off all sorts of commands.
When it has connected to the Web, which it will
do automatically, you can enter your first
destination by clicking on the Open button.
Obviously, your first stop will be the Amiga
Shopper Home page at: www.futurenet.co.uk/
computing/amigashopper.htmll
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r/i/s is a standard Commodore
Installer script. Start by choosing
a destination.
Enter your proper name. This
does not have to be anything to
do with your E-mail address.
Your user will be added to your
actual E-mail address, e.g. Dave
at amigashopper@demon.co.uk.
The node name is the name of the
E-mail account. It is the "real"
part of your E-mail address.
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Another additional bit of
information for your "signature".
You can add anything you want.
You are given the opportunity to
check all the details and go back
if you've made a mistake.
You should already know your
password! It is the one you use to
log on for normal E-mail.
The IP address should have been
given to you. All you need to do is
enter the last two digits.
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If your local number isn't shown,
pick one and then manually edit
the dialler script after installation.
Again you are given the chance to
review your entries and correct
any errors that you've made.
There are then questions about
your actual modem. You should
be able to just "OK" all of them.
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The software is then installed and
the option to add the necessary
commands to Startup is offered.
Issue 62 I
May 1996
Amiga shopper 31
ShopperFealure
How to...
David Taylor
Choose a
programming
language
Paul Overaa guides you
through the computer
programming languages
available for the Amiga.
All languages have good and
bad points, but in practice you
need only ask three questions:
can you learn it? Does it suit
your purpose? Will it still be
around when you've finished learning about it?
It's also important to choose a language that
you will be 'technically comfortable' with. If, for
example, you are new to programming and want
to find some way of making a start, then BASIC
is a very good choice, Assembly language is
not. On the other hand, if you are a competent
coder who has moved to the Amiga from
nix SAa-Jes its.t;-a?i;.iO-I r y;t: :„"l? SsJ'.s-sesss
• usTrdo iglsuri «r» •»( u* D« Cfia top»«r
:sSISSS;!iSi»!::iKISS»:!i!l!S
lijISSJiiiHU:!!
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mi
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,uit;' ta'.'-f.iii
mu-
At its current price,
Blitz BASIC is good
value for money.
' ~ "' >*^*^ >n *l 4
.
SSKKrWJI&fr
"•—-•••'--•" To- »!nrrr-™"'- •*
Devpac 3 is the undisputed champion
with the majority of 680x0 coders.
another machine then you might well be
interested in trying some of the other
programming languages listed here.
BASIC
BASIC was originally designed
specifically for teaching programming,
but over the years the language has
become much more powerful, yet it has
remained easy to learn. A few years ago
a powerful games-oriented BASIC-style
language marketed by Europress Software and
called AMOS became very popular, but support
for the language stopped when Europress
moved into the PC software arena. These days,
you can't buy AMOS, although versions of the
language have been released on magazine
Coverdisks from time to time and an AMOS
compiler add-on is still available from F1
Language contacts
^^^^H
Contact numbers
AMOS Compiler Supplier: Fourth Level
Price: £14.95 (plus 50p P&P) Developments
F1 Licenceware
Supplier: F1 Licenceware HeliOS Forth
Contact: •• 01392 493580
Blitz BASIC 2.1 Price: £65
Fourth Level Developments
Price: £34.99 Supplier: Helios Software
Contact: " 0117 985 4455.
Supplier: Guildhall Leisure GT Prolog
Grange Technology
HiSoft BASIC 2 Price: £89.95
Contact it 01235 851818
Price: £99.95 Supplier: Grange Technology
Guildhall Leisure
Supplier: HISoft Macro 68
Contact: ~ 01302 890000
Devpac 3 Price: £130
HiSoft
Price: £99.95 Supplier: Helios Software
Contact: « 01525 718181
Supplier: HiSoft Highspeed Pascal
Helios Software
Dice C Price: £99.95
Contact: n 01623 554828
Price: £98.95 (plus 6.50 P&P) Supplier: HiSoft
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1 pr^i r=*ii
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■
HiSoft BASIC 2 is a
solid, well supported
Microsoft-style BASIC.
Licenceware. (AS reviewed AMOS Pro
Compiler 2 last month.)
Another BASIC, which has an enthusiastic
band of followers is Blitz BASIC, and a new
version has only just been released. Blitz is
unusual in that it provides a number of
language extensions including
Q NewTypes (C-style structures) and
list handling. It's powerful, now
^^^ good value for money, and a fair
choice if you are into games coding.
The third choice for potential BASIC
coders, HiSoft BASIC 2, has not been
specifically aimed at games programmers. It is
simply a good, well supported, compiled BASIC
whose core facilities are broadly compatible
with Microsoft-style BASICs found on many
other computers. Ideal if portability
considerations are important!
C language
C is the most important of all Amiga languages,
but learning to use a C compiler for the Amiga
is quite a big commitment. The main problem is
not understanding the C language but learning
about the way you interface with and use the
Amiga's library routines. At one time the C
package that all others were judged by came
from the SAS Institute. Development of SAS C,
however, has stopped and the C package now
getting some well deserved attention is Dice C
by the Obvious Implementations Corp. C++
(C plus plus) is a more powerful, object-oriented
version of C. The SAS C package included a
C++ translator, Dice C does not.
32 Amiga shopper
May 1996
The Dice C compiler is very powerful and going
from strength to strength.
Issue 62
David Taylor
How to...
■ ShopperFeature
Assembly language
Assembly language is popular amongst the more
dedicated Amiga programmers but it is difficult
to learn. Without a shadow of a doubt, the most
popular Assembly language environment
amongst Amiga owners in the UK is HiSoft's
Devpac 3. It's a good, well supported product
which has stood the test of time. Another
commercial offering, Macro 68, though providing
many facilities which advanced coders would
find useful, has never been able to mount any
real challenge to topple Devpac from its throne.
The others
Although BASIC, C and Assembler are the main
languages used for Amiga programming there
are many others available. HiSoft offer a Pascal
compiler called Highspeed Pascal that could
prove useful if, for example, you are studying
programming at college and Pascal is being
used as the main language. A good
implementation of Forth, called HeliOS, is
available from Helios Software; and for those of
you interested in artificial intelligence
applications, there is a version of Prolog
available from Grange Technology.
There are also quite a lot of PD and
Shareware offerings around, including the PD C
and North C compiler packages. There's even a
Gnu C++ available for the more ambitious
among you. Charlie Gibbs deserves a mention
here because he produced what is now a firmly
established, and respected, freely distributable
Amiga Assembler package, called A68k. A68k
forms the basis of a lot of PD Assembler
fc^^ packages. On top of this there are
fl B^^ some new languages, including
^^^ one called E which is gaining
Ml ground, plus a variety of
■fc- fringe languages
such as Secal.
Jargon
Core facilities:
The main parts of the language without the
Amiga-specific extensions.
Portable program:
A program is portable if its source code can
be transferred from one type of computer to
another and made to run with little or no
change. The more work needed to get the
program running on a new machine, the less
portable the code is considered to be.
Write an
AmigaGuide
You want documents that
enable the user to work their
way through levels?
AmigaGuide is the answer.
This is another area that we get
frequent requests for help with.
The beauty of these documents is
that while they offer some neat
tricks for experienced users, they
are still easy to get started with for
the beginner. Let's go through
the basics behind writing an
AmigaGuide document.
These documents are nothing
more than normal ASCII files; the
normal output standard to word
processors across platforms. These
files don't contain any of the flash text
effects that are signalled in specialised file
formats like a Wordworth document.
However, they do store different styles by
means of a set of codes denoted by letters. This
means that if you load an AmigaGuide into a
normal text editor, you will see not only the text,
but also a set of additional characters
surrounding certain parts.
What happens is that a special program,
either Multiview on earlier machines or
AmigaGuide in more recent ones, will be used
to view the document. Making use of the
AmigaGuide.library (in Libs:), this interprets the
codes and instead of showing the codes it
shows the text in the specified format.
All that you need to do is create a
document in an editor and save it, then add an
icon and ensure that its default tool is either
AmigaGuide or Multiview. (To change the default
tool, click once on the icon on Workbench and
then select Information from the Icon menu.) The
following is a guide to some of the codes:
Guide to guides
This is a short listing for an AmigaGuide,
followed by explanations of the codes. For your
reference, line numbers have been placed next
to the lines, but when typing a guide you do not
include line numbers.
1) ©database My Guide
2) ©wordwrap
3) ©node Main "The Main Page"
4) @(fg shine}The first line of the text as a
title@(fg text)
5) Some normal text
6) @{b)Text in bold@{ub}
7) @{i)Text in italics@{ui}
8) @{u)Text underlined@{uu}
9) @("My first link" link linkl } This is a button
linked to another node
10) ©("My picture" link Mydisk:picture/main)
This is a button linked to a picture
11) @("My sound" link Mydisk:sound/main)
This is a button linked to a sample
1 2)@endnode
13)
1 4) ©node linkl "The new link"
5) Whatever you want to say
1 2)@endnode
1) The first line of the document needs to
inform the computer what type of
document it is. "©database" informs it
that it is an AmigaGuide. "My Guide" is
simply the title of the document; you can
call it whatever you want.
2) "©wordwrap" turns the automatic
sizing on. This means that lines can be
written as one long string without any
returns and the guide will fit the words
on to the line and adjust the lines if the
window is resized, so that you don't have to
scroll across to read the full line.
3) The first page of the guide has to be flagged.
Each page is called a node, so the first page is
flagged by "©node Main". The text in quotation
marks is what will appear in the titlebar of the
document for that page.
4) You might want the first line of your document
to stand out as a title. "@{fg shine}" makes the
AmigaGuldes
can link to
pictures and
use datatypes
to show any
supported file
format.
Workbench hereon
(Image by
Alex
Thornhill.)
ma
Workbench Screen
o| sound
Help I
-P j e
v
Above: AmigaGuides can also link to
sound files, if you have the right datatypes.
Right: Using the wordwrap option means
that guides will reformat the text as the
window is re-sized.
°3 The Main Page IBIgi
Sone nornal text
Text in bold
Text in italics
My first 1 it*l This
is a button linked
to another node
My picture! This is a
button linked to a
picture
My sound! This is a
button linked to a
■>!■
v
Issue 62 I
May 1996
Amiga shopper 33
WHILE-U-WAIT!!
COMPUTERS AND MONITORS
Attention Dealers
Ring/Fax Now for best trade prices
and terms on Repairs, Spares, Floppy
Drives, Hard Drives, CD Rom Drives
and Memory Upgrades.
NEW LOW FIXED PRICE
- FAST TURNAROUND
«■> 90 DAYS WARRANTY ON ALL REPAIRS!!
»• £10 EXTRA CHARGE FOR WHILE-U-WAIT SERVICE
■» COURIER CHARGES £6-00 + VAT EACH WAY
■» A1 500/A2000/A3000/A4000 EQUOTATION
A500, A500+ & A600
£39.95 £49.95
A1200
2-5" HARD DRIVES
For A600 & A1 200
80Mb £69-95 170Mb £99-95 340Mb £169-95
120Mb £79-95 250Mb £129-95 510Mb £249-95
All hard drives are pre-formatted, partitioned with Workbench
loaded and include 2-5" IDE cable and software
2-5" IDE Cable and Software (if bought separately) £9-95
ACCELERATORS
Apollo 1220 . £99-95
Apollo 1232. £199-95
SIMMS £P0A
MODEMS
X-Link
14.4k .
X-Link
28.8k .
. . £129.95
. £219-95
FOR BEST AFTER-SALES SERVICE
A600
A1200
Upgrade to 9 Meg
UNBEATABLE
PRICES
0Mb 2Mb
H900 £10495 C149-M M79-9S
33MHI m ptu Crystal MM5
INTERNAL FLOPPY DRIVES
A500/A500+ £29-95 A600/A1 200 . . .£34-95
fiMITfiR
Genlocks
CD ROM
DRIVE Hama 292 . . £280.00
Including gy^ $REED MiniCem
Squirrel
SCSI
Interface
£249.95
L500 £69.95
L1500 £169.95
L2000S . . . £349.95
CHIPS * SPARES * ACCESSORIES
1 Meg Fatter Agnus £19
2 Meg Fatter Agnus £24
8362 Denise £9
8373 Super Denise £18
571 9 Gary £7
8520 CIA A500/A500+ £15
8364 Paula A500/A500+ £12
Kickstart ROM 1 -3 £15
Kickstart ROM 204 £22
Kickstart ROM 2-05 £2900
A500/A500+ Keyboard £50-00
6570 Keyboard Chip £20 "
68000 Processor £8-00
Power Supply A500/A600/A1200... £35
Exchange A2000/A1 500 Power Supply ...£70-00
* All chips are available ex
* Please call far any chip o
8520 CIA A600/A1 200 £14
8374 Alice A1200 £30
8364 Paula A600/A1 200 £16
Video DACA1200 £19
A600/A1200 Keyboard £60
Lisa Al 200 £35-00
Gayle A600/A1 200 £25-00
Budgie A1200 £3000
Mouse (290dpi) £15-00
SCART lead £15-00
Mouse Mot £4-00
10 Boxed Branded Disks £6-00
Printer Cable £600
100 Disk Box £7-00
Squirrel SCSI Interface £59-00
-stock
r spare not listed here
A1 200 without hard drive £299-95 A1200 with 510Mb £549-95
A1 200 with 1 70Mb hard drive . . .£379-95 f ,. . . . .
ai 200 with 340Mb £449-95 * Call for more good deals
. T ■ ■——■■«»— ttWU\ I #«• °P« n Mon-W 8-00am- 5.30pm, Sat 9-0Oam-5-O0pm Fax: 0181 541 4671
Analogic computers iimj wo ** NfW opening times ## new opening times #*
Tel: 0181 546 9575
ANALOG*.
ANALOGIC Unit 6, Ashway Centre, Elm Crescent,
MflMOGIC Kingston-upon-Thamcs, Surrey KTfi 6HH
* All prices include VAT * All prices subject to change without notice * Fixed charse for repair does not include disk drive/keyboard
* We reserve the right to refuse any repair * P&P charges £3 50 by Royal Mail or £600 + VAT for courier * Please allow 5 working days for cheque clearance , «■»
* All sales are only as per our terms and conditions of sale, copy available on request. i ^^m i l ^ g - :
David Taylor
How to...
d | Work: Daw
IBM©
HvGuide. guide (Project)
~7
3
1
496
>!i
|4B96 |
13-Mar
-96 13:28:88
rz
|anigaguide
1
A
V
Neu | : :: l>ff|:| |:
,!'.,.i".' : ".i':-.:
Save I
Cancel
Selecting the icon
from Workbench
enables you lo enter
the tool that will
read your guides.
LdUord Pro Ub.li - UorkiPave/ttyCuide
'database Hv 9Uide
uordurap
^node Main "The Main Page"
<fg shineHhe first line of the text as a titlrttfg text}
ione noma I text
<b>Text in boldP<ub>
(i)Text in italicslHui)
tuHext underlinedfltuu}
TMv first l]nk" link linkl > This is a button linked to another node
C"H» picture, link Nyd.isk:picture/nain> This is a button linked to a pic
i nv sound link Hydlsk:sound/nain> This is a button linked to a sanple
J£
ture
'node linkl "The neu link"
lhatever you want to sav
endnode
The guides are simply
ASCII text files written
in an editor with the
codes included In the
text Itself.
"You can link to
any datatype
supported, so not
just pictures."
_fedf^J Hflp iJtkBTjfclLlI frww >l
Itlla ii a button linked la anuthsr r
If U a button I tried lo a picture
ill is a button I Inked to a iwvlt
And here is the guide file when viewed with
either Multiview or AmigaGuide.
.replace a keyboard
text a different colour - white by default. Any
text after this will appear shine, so the text
needs turning back by using the "@{fg text)".
5) Just typing in text will appear as normal text
as in any document. This is just how the majority
of the document needs to be entered.
6) Text can be made into a bold typeface
using the "©(b)" command, and as in (4)
needs turning off again, which is done with the
"@{ub)" command.
7) The same as (6) except that text is italicized.
8) The same as (7) except that text is
underlined. Combinations of the commands can
be used. You could have "@{b}@{i}@{fg
shine)Flash Text!@{ub}@(ui}@{fg text)", which
would put the words "Flash Text!" into bold,
italic, shine and then reset the font.
9) This is where AmigaGuide comes into its
own. This is how to include a button that you
can click on to move to a different part of the
document. The text in quotation marks is what
will appear within the button. The word "link"
tells the guide what the button will be linked to;
i.e. where to go in the document if the button is
pressed. The word "linkl " is the name I have
given to the node (page) that it should go to;
you can call them anything, e.g. "Chapterl ".
After the button and commands, signalled by the
closing ")" you can put some text that will
explain to your readers what the button links to.
This way you can also simply incorporate
buttons into text. You could type "Amiga
Shopper is the only choice for serious
©{"Amiga" link amiga) owners" and have the link
to the node "Amiga" where there would be more
information about the computer.
10) AmigaGuides can deal with more than just
text. This type of link displays a picture called
"picture" from a disk called "Mydisk". The "/main"
is needed for it to open up what is essentially a
separate document to display the picture.
1 1) You can link to any datatype supported, so
not just pictures, which you could have in IFF,
JPEG, TIFF, etc format as long as you have the
datatypes. You can also link to sounds, such as
this 8SVX sample. When the node is selected,
the sound will be played.
1 2) In order for nodes, or pages, to make sense,
the program needs to know where a node ends.
So, every single node must be finished with
"©endnode".
1 3) A spare line between nodes will help you to
look through the guide later.
1 4) Any new nodes have to be noted. This is the
node referred to in (9). As with the main node
(3), the text in quotations appears in the titlebar.
Extra help
There are several utilities available in the PD that
will help to make sure that nodes link up - such
as Badlinks. You can also convert guides into
normal documents, using utilities like Heddley
(on AS55's Coverdisks), so that you can strip
away codes and having written a guide, also
have a normal ASCII document. ■
All you need to remove is the plastic-coated
ribbon. This is also the procedure for
repairing the ribbon, as
. described last month.
Open up the casing and lift
back the keyboard. You may
need to remove the power
lead to the power light.
The ribbon
should just
come free. Hold
down the white
plastic casing
when freeing it.
Reverse this
process for the
new keyboard.
Issue 62
May 1996
Amiga shopper 35
ShopperReview
Word processing
Graeme Sandiford
Wordworth
Two powerful word processing programs are fighting for supremacy. Can Wordworth 5 finally triumph
over Final Writer? Graeme Sandiford is the adjudicator...
As far as Amiga word
processors go there are
only two main camps; the
one with users who relish
the power of Final Writer,
and those who appreciate the interface
and niceties of Wordworth. These two
mighty applications have battled for word
processor market-supremacy over the last
few years. Up until now the struggle has
been pretty even, but Digita are making a
decisive move towards Final Writer's end
of the market by substantially beefing-up
version 5 of Wordworth.
Despite the new, powerful features, one
feature remains unchanged in Wordworth 5 - its
interface. Wordworth's HIP (Human Interface
Protocol) interface and its unique Digisense
system are two of the biggest reasons for the
program's popularity. In recent years, Digita
have been working with Swansea University to
develop and refine the interfaces of their
programs to ensure that they are intuitive to use
and provide a productive environment. This
continued hard work has paid off in a big way.
A pleasant surprise in the package is three
extra disks containing 50 CompuGraphic fonts.
Word processing in style
Diaita Wordworth
MUOMpjO/X\ eilDjQ
Digita Word wort
AwUnUOn
_^2
Wordworth's Text Effects are a match for Final
Writer macros like Final Wrapper.
"Digita are making
a decisive move
towards Final
Writer's end of
the market."
These are supplied free with Wordworth 5 and
are welcome because choosing the right
typeface can influence how readable or
attention-grabbing your text is when printed out.
If you are confused by the term CompuGraphic,
the best way to relate to these fonts is that they
look the same no matter what size they are
because they're not based on bitmap images.
When they print out they are also printed at your
printer's maximum resolution. Wordworth has
support for Adobe Postscript, TrueType and
Amiga fonts too.
Installing the program and the fonts is
painless because they both use Installer, so you
can have as much or as little interaction as you
want. A full installation including items such as
clipart, takes up just over 3Mb of hard disk
space. If you have a fetish for swapping disks
you can still install Wordworth to floppies.
You may be hard pushed to noticed any
changes to Wordworth 5 immediately because
the default screen is nearly identical to
Wordworth 3. To save you hours trying to find all
these new features there is a section under the
help menu that details them.
You will also find one of the new features
under the help menu. Wizards are best
Here's the Toolbar - It
enables you to access
commands with your
mouse. You can
customise it too.
Pictures can be inserted
in a variety of different
file formats.
woroworm b *£' iqqfi mnitn Inle mqlionol
n | Milky Way
Drag-and-drop style
sheets make light
work of formatting
paragraphs.
36 Amiga shopper
l;jl pamoee» | HO 5 ™ J i'J^ilSi*i S
_j1
iiita ±Ul±ll2
The instances
between the stars
scattered
throughout soaof
ormous.
Even in our solar
system, which is
the name given to
the sun and the
els, dislanofs
are very large. If
we represented
the Earth by a
golf ball, the sun
would be equivalent to
*U* Liil
away. In (act the distant* between the
sun is about 1 50,000.000 km This
sometimes used as a unit of measurement
the light-year, which is the distance travelled
it 9.5 million million km.
lelongs is called the Milky Way. It b a
ight years across and 10.000 light years
Alpha-Centaun. is 40 million million km
The Ribbon bar provides
you with access to text
formatting features,
including the Bullet
point command.
This garish headline
was created surprisingly
quickly with the new
Text Effects tool.
Using this window
you can add a variety
of objects including
text boxes, images
and tables.
May 1996
Issue 62
Graeme Sandiford
Word processing
ShopperReview
described as interactive tutorials and are great
for getting inexperienced users to use the
program effectively and quickly. On running a
Wizard (such as the invoice Wizard), you are
taken step-by-step through the process you
have chosen to be demonstrated. The Wizard
asks you to make entries when needed and at
the end you will have learnt a new aspect of the
program and have something to show for it.
Unfortunately, there are only four Wizards
included at the moment; however, you should
expect to see more appear in the Public Domain
because they are basically ARexx scripts and
therefore quite easy to make.
ARexx support
Yep, that's right, Wordworth now has support
for ARexx. Hurrah! Excuse me for that outburst,
but this is a major addition and it could lead to
the development of even more new tools.
Despite being overlooked by a surprising
number of software developers, an ARexx port is
a big asset to pretty much any type of program,
because it enables it to be controlled externally
and it can also control external programs.
However, as demonstrated by several keen
Final Writer users, ARexx can be used within a
program to create new features. These tools
take the form of macros; all you need to make
your own is a good understanding of the Amiga,
Wordworth and the ARexx programming
language. Although well-hidden, the Help Guide
file contains most of the program's ARexx
Command set and is still being worked on.
It's a drag!
Another welcome addition are the drag-and-
drop style sheets which Final Writer doesn't
have. Style sheets are extremely handy because
they can change the format of text quickly and
easily. A style sheet contains formatting or
styling information such as text and background
colours, kerning, tracking, underlining, the
typeface and the size of text. In practice this
means creating a style sheet that has the desired
attributes in the style sheet editor, then applying
it to the target paragraph by dragging and
dropping it from the style sheet window.
Wordworth's implementation of this feature
is impressive and is comparable to the system
found in QuarkXpress (used to lay out AS and
many other magazines). When creating a new
style sheet you can base it upon an existing one
and even determine which style is applied to a
new paragraph (each time you press <return>).
As with Xpress you can import style sheets from
other documents, but you can also apply them
to selected areas of a paragraph and enjoy the
benefits of a preview of your style sheet as you
create it, which you can't do in Xpress.
There are several other formatting tools in
Wordworth 5, including a Fast Format option.
This enables you to copy a paragraph format
and then paste it over and over on to other
paragraphs. This is useful because you can
simply select a paragraph that is formatted the
way you want and then make any other
paragraph share that formatting without having
to create a style sheet, or find out exactly how
it is formatted.
Issue 62
Right: This is a 256-
colour preview of a
document containing
a 24-bit image.
Below: It is easy to
create your own
custom toolbars with
this editor.
It is also possible to create paragraphs with
hanging indents by simply clicking on a button.
Similarly, you can add bullet points to a
paragraph by clicking on the Bullet Point button.
Doing so brings up a requester that enables you
to specify the font and character of your choice.
Your paragraph is then indented to the first Tab
stop and your chosen character is inserted.
Font Effects have been added which can be
used to modify fonts. The available functions
include stretch, oblique, small caps, strike-
through, double-underline and superscript. The
program's tabling features have been improved
as well and it is now possible to load TurboCalc
spreadsheets as a table within your documents.
If you have a high-quality printer then you
will appreciate the enhancements that have
been made in Wordworth's image handling and
printing capabilities. It is now possible to import
Auto Correct
is not a spell
checker; it
expand
abbreviations
for you.
Aulo Cornel
_U3iE
mu - me
Mcul«-ret«
1- ^^^^mf&V^^^H^m | ^^^^^^^B
=ii
_u^|
.Cgw^J
"Wordworth 5 is
the ideal choice
for the beginner."
Here's the new
and improved
Find and
Replace tool
in action.
I.'i. i 'at l
I 100.006 lo« v*»wrd
MHcorOa
h*i m diwnrlv,
bul ,1 b^om,
oitBiicial pull
|hr ndf* Whw, tl
i. the high i
the low rtNp ,<l
roaiywj
"9V
May 1996
24-bit images and have them displayed at the
best quality of your display. It also improves the
quality of the images that are printed out.
There is also intelligent printer font support
for laserjet printers, so that the program
automatically use the available fonts without
having to switch to a separate mode.
Background printing is possible too, so you can
continue working on a document as it is being
printed out. As with previous versions,
Wordworth's printer support is excellent and the
installation script has an enormous list of
available printer drivers that can be installed
with pretty much every printer I've heard of.
One of the features of Wordworth that has
always drawn me to it is its excellent support for
different file formats. It can now open text in the
following formats; Final Copy II, Final Writer,
ASCII, RTF (particularly useful), Word Perfect
5.1 for DOS, MS Word for DOS, MS Works
(text files only), Wordstar and MS Write for
Windows. It can also save files as ASCII, RTF
and Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS. Several
graphics formats are also supported and you
can load pictures saved in EPS, IFF. TIFF, GIF,
PCX, BMP and IMG formats.
Feature perfect
Wordworth 5 is quicker and smoother in
operation than its predecessors, most notably
when saving and loading files. All of the great
features of previous versions are still there too.
While Wordworth doesn't have the extensive
DTP features of Final Writer, it can be used to
create attractive documents relatively easily with
its own collection of tools. With the addition of
an ARexx port the program has every chance of
gaining as many power features as FW4.
Thanks to its excellent interface and helpful
on-line and printed manuals, Wordworth 5 is the
ideal choice for the beginner who is looking for
a good balance of power and ease-of-use; it is
definitely worth upgrading to for experienced
users of earlier versions too. ■
Wordworth 5
Price: £69.99
(upgrade Wordworth 3. 1 £29,99)
( upgrade any other program £39,99)
Supplie r: Digiia International
Contact: 01395 270273
Verdict: 94%
Star buy
Am iga shopper 37
Ht O Limited Serving the Amiga User since 1988
Why not try our Internet site at www.hiq.co.uk
Multimedia PowerStation options for all Amigas
Siamese Tower Version
Speakers not included
PowerStation Specifications
1 . 200 watt power supply for complete systems including
monitor on one power switch, (your Amiga power lead needed).
2. Good looking high quality steel construction.
3. Five drive bays, various mounting configurations.
4. Ideal monitor stand and cables slide underneath.
5. SONY 2.4 speed CD Rom drive.
6. Siamese PC upgrade compatible.
7. Low cost when compared to single drive cases.
8. DOES NOT VOID WARRANTY.
Desktop PowerStation Pack Price
Includes Sony 2.4 speed SCSI CD Rom + Squirrel
NEW PRICE £279.95 Call for other options.
Ask for Surfing Squirrel version.
Speakers not included
The Greatest Drive since the
Model T Ford . _
Panasonic PD DRIVE
Internal Drive Unit
NEW PRICE
£429.95 inc VAT
We use them, we know them!
Panasonic
Optical Storage
!!A1200 3.5" STAR DRIVE BUYS!!
JTS 540MB Only £159.95 ULTRA SLIM
)TS 840MB Only £199.95
JTS drives formatted, and Magic Workbench
plus PD Software installed. Includes cable pack.
Fits as easy as a 2.5" drive, call for details.
Free fitting for personal callers.
UK Post & Packing £7 (CityLink)
SCSI Drive
Quantum 840MB Lightning £199.95
HiQ Ltd, Gable End, 2 The Square, Hockliffe, Bedfordshire LU7 9NB
EMail address: steve@hiqltd.demon.co.uk ■■■■
All prices include VAT. Please Add 2.5% for Credit Cards
unless Connect and Delta versions.
'
TEL 01525 211327
Call for brochure
FAX 01525 211328
AVAILABLE FROM YOUR
NEWSAGENT N
the roleplaying magazine
War baby
Introduce the ultimate
conflict to your campaign
Roru Prayingu
What the hell is going on
with Japanese roleplaying?
Woo - Woo
The golden age of steam
explored in our mysterious
12 page encounter
Heresy
This year's most gorgeous
card game gets the full
arcane treatment
Read our full and frank review of White Wolf's
most fantastic roleplaying game yet
Larry Hickmott
Printer
ShopperReview
Epson
Now you can buy a laser
printer for the price of an Inkjet.
Larry Hickmott tests the new
EPL-5500 from Epson.
Peripherals like the Epson
EPL-SSOO make me feel old.
That's because I can
remember the days when
you needed a warehouse to
store your computer and a huge desk the
size of an office door for anything that
resembled a printer. The story is so
different nowadays and you have to look
no further than the EPL-5500 for proof.
Here is a 600dpi printer that costs just over
£420 in the High Street. It's not that long ago
that a 300dpi model would have cost a lot more
than that, so the EPL-5500 is a bargain. It's also
very small. Most of my printers tend to absorb all
the desk space given to them, but the Epson
has plenty of desk visible around it.
When in use, the desk space required for
the EPL-5500 increases because the in-tray for
the paper folds out in front of the printer to take
up to 1 50 sheets of paper. Out-going paper
spits out of the top and on to an angular tray
that doesn't appear to be very strong.
Getting the EPL-5500 up and running with
the Amiga was simple. Making such a statement
after having used so many printers may appear
to be assuming too much but with TurboPrint 4.1
and Studio 2 already installed on my Amiga, it
was plug and play using the printer. Using
TurboPrint 4.1 and Studio 2 also introduced me
to some differences between the two programs.
First, they are two packages you will need
to consider if you intend using this printer with
your Amiga. This is because the printer has no
control panel and all its internal functions like
the number of copies and so on are controlled
from Workbench. Both Studio 2 and TurboPrint
do it differently though.
Whereas Studio 2 comes with a separate
desktop control panel called SetupPJL to set
the various functions in the printer, these same
controls in TurboPrint are controlled from various
panels and some controls do not exist at all. Of
the two, I prefer Studio 2's approach which has
them all in the one place.
Quality toner
One item that caught my eye was the separate
toner cartridge and drum assembly. In this day
and age of all-in-one toner cartridge assemblies,
this two-piece job is refreshing because, while
the printer is producing good quality output, you
don't need to replace the drum. It has a life
expectancy of 20,000 sheets, while the toner
cartridge is supposedly good for 3,000 sheets.
Expect around 20 per cent less for real use.
6*wiu*vww*Mu-e»»<iiji' |H|ip
tela JTJ *»*»*■' Dwl« _|A*«vM _|
fcfftr f»| tola
»»Ml CI *■•»
tm> CI M
i***t« C| i*tu*|ii*i* £|o-w»»]
«**■« CI ■*-•* I'ww CI *"» 1
■: ■-.'.■ - C| ' -■ .■ |r„„:,., f :,. - ■ |
l~Mi*l CI *"> l*w., ci *'« 1
■x CI u<M
■■mA
'""•i | Cn» |
Above: Controlling the functions
of the printer has to be done
through software like Studio's
"Setup PJL" utility.
urfcotaUi •ln M Ban-.*K
HP
»l.iUrlBnllf>lGf<C.»10r*»
icl T..I 1 Pan.- 1 •UrdooFY
™. Ol dr.*. |
*•«) Ol Standard |
1 Landaeyn IOraahlM>
•rl.H«r MIlM*... |
frlntmJt J Dim i | B
r a-»»
J Colour
i*~"r Q|S wrw»c|
Fora'aM attar Printout
■fj G«rhle* ^J !i.l
I«. | Cmi 1
JIJ.1I f^- PJ
— rr**- tw r. ' er r t r . i r.j^ij —
Publishing
Dp Ivor; LaicrDrlvar
D.n.MyiOOOOOO
i Scat*
Or <•■>■- « il
Orioyrl-Stvlnbara
3
i;«.
£49.95'
Wc
Above: With a suitable DTP program and the Epson EPL-5500,
you have the beginnings of your very own DTP business.
Left: The latest printing enhancement package in the UK,
TurboPrint 4. 1 has support for lasers that emulate the
HP LaserJet 4; the Epson is one such printer.
Issue 62
May 1996
Bear in mind that the toner cartridge is likely
to cost upwards of £50. When you consider
that a toner cartridge for my LaserJet 4MP costs
the same but also has an imaging drum in it, you
have to wonder why the Epson toner cartridge
costs so much without the drum. It is after all
the drum which contains all the valuable metals
and that's now separate from the toner in the
Epson model.
To be fair to Epson, if you compare the
costs of the Epson in a run of 20,000 copies,
to the HP LaserJet 5L (the EPL-5500's closest
competitor), the EPL-5500 comes out ahead of
the 5L by around £90.
The EPL-5500 is also ahead of the 5L
when it comes to expansion because it will take
an EpsonScript module so you can print
PostScript. Consider that my first print test with
this printer, a landscape A4 page, took well over
an hour to print, but when printed using
PostScript (on a different printer), it took only
two and half minutes, it's not hard to see why
PostScript is so valuable for the Amiga owner.
The printer comes with 1 Mb of memory as
standard, although other memory versions are
available and the PostScript model requires
5Mb of memory. Going back to the EPL-5500's
paper handling, as well as the 1 50-sheet paper
feed already mentioned, you will also find a slot
for the manual feed above the in-tray, where
card of up to 1 57gsm can be fed.
Overall, the EPL-5500 is cracking printer. I
had it running until I had drained it of all its toner
and at no time did I have any problems like a
loss in quality, overheating or paper jamming. At
the price and with its PostScript option, I would
look at it more closely than the Hewlett-Packard
5L which is a great printer but doesn't take
PostScript. Don't forget that you will also need
to spend £49.95 on either TurboPrint 4.1 or
Studio 2 to get the most from the EPL-5500. ■
Epson EPL-5500
Price: RRPE399
Supplier : Epson UK
Contact: 0800 220546"
Verdict: 91%
Star buy
Amiga shopper 39
ShopperReview
Music
Maff Evans
version3
As new forms of music appear and evolve, so too does music
software. Maff Evans finds out whether it's all for the better.
Objects are controlled by variables, which can be
global or local. Here we see a window containing
the current local variables available.
"Problems that
hound Loom to
embarrassing
levels.
99
In the instruments window, you can load IFF
samples, tune them and map them to a particular
scale. There's no support for MIDI instruments.
40 AMtGA SHOPPER
Algorithmic composition is
by no means a new
phenomenon. Classical
composers such as Bach
dabbled in translating
mathematical formulae to acceptable
musical forms and many electronic artists
have come up with similar
ideas. This is no surprise, since
computers can both carry out
complex mathematical
functions AND link to music
equipment. Loom attempts to
bring the two worlds together,
by presenting you with a series
of maths-based functions
which can create random or
ordered pieces of music.
This is done by stringing
together 'Objects' in a tree-like
arrangement, each of which has
its own function and attributes.
At its simplest level, an Object
can consist of a string of notes to be played as
a pattern until the next Object is triggered, but
all manner of colossally complex manipulators
can also be created as Objects, themselves
transforming other parts of a tree to create
transpositions, arpeggiations, recursions and...
well, almost anything, really. Sound
complicated? Believe me, you have no idea.
Window cleaning
Loom is supplied on two disks - one with the
main program and another with different types of
Objects to be loaded in. When you get past the
title screen and enter the program, you are just
given a blank screen, a strip of icons and a few
windows with which to begin editing. That's
about it really. From here the mind-boggling
complexity starts to show.
The actual parts (the Objects mentioned
earlier) of a composition are arranged in the
Object window, with different shaped boxes
depicting the Object types. Other windows are
used to navigate your way through the 'tree',
including a visualiser window to show data
within an Object, an instruments window
displaying sounds and another window for
playing and looking at Objects.
Rather than having a menu strip at the top
of the screen, each window has its own set of
May 1996
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pop-up menus, all pertaining to the functions of
the active window.
The most simple composition you could
create would just be a string of mono phrases
or chord Objects strung together alongside a
drum beat, but to use Loom as it was intended,
you'll need to grasp the theory of algorithms in
composition. The best way to
describe this is in terms of a
series of events like a computer
program. You set up Objects with
parameters that can be triggered
by variables (Loom can handle
variables that are local to a
particular process or global to an
entire composition). You then set
up a series of conditions that the
Objects must adhere to and
mathematical progressions that
affect the conditions that the
Objects detect. Lost you? Well,
think of everything being a series
of IF.. .THEN and
WHILE. ..WEND loops, with the progressions
and Objects sitting inside.
Chain reactions
The next step up is to use recursions. This
enables Objects to use other Objects or even
themselves to define how an Object will act. In
basic terms this is either how a musical phrase
will play or how another Object will be affected
by a series of calculations, all in a nested series
which can produce wild results. Getting things
to produce listenable music takes a lot of time
and effort, since everything can exist in a chain.
Make one change and EVERYTHING can be
thrown out of whack.
Most of the work done in Loom will be with
transformations, which involves placing special
Objects alongside musical phrases to affect
them in certain ways. The actual transformations
used vary wildly, from simple transpositions of
notes to maths functions and randomisers. Even
when you use the random Objects, there's a lot
you can do with the functions on offer. For a
start there are various types of distribution you
can use (linear, exponential, bell curved and so
on), which in turn can be controlled through the
various effects - all of which can be tracked in
the visualisation window (which gives a
graphical representation of what you're doing.
When you've got a handle on all this, things can
Issue 62
Maff Evans
Music
ShopperReview
be linked up into huge networks, producing
long, evolving pieces of what is often called
process music. Well it is for the first few bashes
you take. Later, you may create something which
is more akin to the usual forms of music. All very
complicated stuff, I trust you'll agree. In fact I
had to refer to my Mathematics degree-holding
girlfriend and her text books (which, incidentally,
featured texts on the algorithmic compositions
of Bach) to put some of the theories into
practice. Some of those books only just covered
the maths involved, and the chaos theory
sections of Loom I'm told are too complex for
degree courses - it's a complex brand of
mathematics in its own right.
When you consider the amount of
processing that has had to go into Loom to
create these processes, the programmer must
be a maths wizard to have been able to translate
these theories into musical tools.
Yes... but
Loom is a brave attempt at coming up with a
new way to compose music. Unfortunately it
fails on a whole slew of levels. The first is that
the system is very unstable. Attempting to run in
a number of ways (from floppy, from hard disk,
with or without extra RAM, accelerated and non-
accelerated and even on different Amigas) quite
often presented glitches and complete lock-outs
(either a freeze or just quitting the program). If
you've spent time trying to manipulate Objects
this is much more than frustrating.
The second problem is in the operating
system. File-location, moving Objects, operating
windows and structuring the system is far from
straightforward, Windows refuse to close,
confusion between file types gets annoying and
navigating even a simple algorithm is fraught
with difficulty. Expecting any musician to cope
with an unwieldy interface places a stumbling
block in the creative process. Not good at all.
The third, and probably most heinous,
setback is the environment itself. Even basing
music around algorithms, recursions, formulae,
random distributions, transposition maps and
patterns needs to build up from a basis. Simply
placing controls on a blank canvas and
expecting you to plough through the manuals
and learn the maths is a bit much. If you're going
to program music using such a system, you
The processors
Algorithmic composition
usually results in a very
characteristic form of music,
usually called 'process'
music Many composers have
produced such pieces, the
most famous of these being
such artists as Michael
Nyman (who has produced
scores for Peter Greenaway's
film work) and Steve Reich
(who recently performed the
acclaimed 'The Cage' and 'Six
Pianos'). A name which will
probably trigger more
peoples' memories is Richard
James, also known as Aphex
Twin. His 'Selected Ambient
Works Volume Two' CD
featured many process-type
tunes, some of which are
extremely challenging to
usual music forms. Perhaps
the most well-known artist in
the field is the prolific Philip
Glass, creator of Einstein on
the Beach and Koyanisquatzi.
His work has been very
influential in the field, and he
even worked with Richard
James to produce a cross
between the techno of Aphex
Twin and classical recursive
themes. Get hold of issue 36
of Shopper's sister
magazine, Future Music, and
listen to the cover-mount CD
to hear Icct Hedral - the
results of their collaboration.
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Drum patterns are predefined
and distinctly non-algorithmic.
This page allows you to provide
a set of samples of your
choosing for the various
percussion sounds.
might as well do it in C or something.
There are a number of other problems, such
as limiting the way you create instruments to a
specific map with a certain type of sample, no
support for MIDI (MAJOR mistake), poor filing
support, a ragged, undisciplined structure - not
open, just ragged, and instructions which take
impenetrability to new levels.
This isn't just an argument against
algorithmic composition or process music, since
there are programs on other platforms that allow
you to use formulae, arpeggiations, recursions
and random distributions to create music
algorithms - and they work properly. Admittedly
they're more expensive, but you get a solid
piece of code that won't fall over, a good user
interface, sample and MIDI-based tools and the
ability to create music that people will want to
hear. That's worth paying more for. Loom isn't
worth buying at all.
Glitchy software, a confusing environment,
limited output possibilities and too many
assumptions on the knowledge of musicians are
all problems that hound Loom to embarrassing
levels. All the good intentions, brave inclusions
and complex tools in the world can't overcome
all this.
What could be a better alternative would be
to contact Seasoft for a copy of the acclaimed
(and rightly so) OctaMED Pro and spend some
money on maths books and a reference guide to
the work of modern East European composers.
Other musicians have managed with this kind of
material, so why shouldn't you?
Loom version3
Price: £31 One P&P)
Supplier: Seasoft Computing
Contact: 01903 850378
Verdict: 15%
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7.
TTie family tree' type structure of a typical Object This one provides
harmonies to input note structures - all controlled by a string of variables.
Loom's operating page consists of windows for controlling Objects,
instruments and structures. A control strip on the left holds the edit icons.
Issue 62
May 1996
Amiga shopper 41
ShopperReview
zn
Sound creation
Maff Evans
Aural Synthetica
Maff Evans discovers whether
this program can bring full
synthesizer power to the Amiga.
The Amiga has always been
considered a very able music-
making machine, with cheap,
but still more than reasonable
sampling on offer and some
very powerful MIDI applications. However,
there has been little in the way of true
sound creation programs. Aural Synthetica
attempts to bring the quality of a full
analogue synthesizer to any Amiga, not
just those with expansion board
capabilities. It still needs a pretty pokey
Amiga to run properly, including an '020
processor (an '030 is recommended) and a
couple of megs of free RAM, but it means
that anyone with a 1200 or up can use it.
Model maker
So why does it need all this processing power?
Well, rather than just using the Amiga's built-in
sound to play the synth tone, you construct a
'patch' by linking modules together and
adjusting their various settings, which the
program then uses to construct a 'model' of the
sound. The model is then used to generate an
audio sample which can be saved to disk.
Although a novel approach, Aural Synthetica
isn't the first program to adopt such a system.
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The number
of tools for
manipulating
the raw
waveforms is
impressive
and they can
produce
great results.
Masses of
floating
windows can
be brought
up for
individual
settings, but
they don't all
work as you
would expect.
Left: Even on the main screen a huge
bank of buttons is on show to access
the edit screens.
Below: Synth sounds are built by
linking modules in the patch screen.
Plan carefully or suffer frustration.
42 Amiga shopper
Users of other platforms have had this kind of
technology for years - the classic example is
Turbosynth on the Apple Macintosh, although
Turbosynth's operating system is more fluid than
the complex interface used by Synthetica.
How it works
At the most basic level, you use an oscillator to
generate a sound wave. This is probably
Synthetica's strongest point, since you can use
a lot of powerful tools to generate almost any
type of waveform. Unfortunately, it's a complex
process and only those who have a strong
grounding in synthesis or audio physics will be
able to manipulate it with any kind of dexterity, A
certain number of standard
waves have been supplied, but
coming up with new ones will
mean a trip to the library to get
a text book for many users.
When you've finally got
your wave, you can flip to the
Patch window, where the
actual synth sound is set up.
This attempts to recreate the
original modular analogue
synth architecture, with a load
of on-screen boxes that you
link together with red lines (simulating the patch
leads). What you do is click on the output of one
section (say, the wave output of an oscillator) to
the input of another (such as the input of an
amplifier), which in turn can be effected by an
envelope generator. Unless you understand how
the structure of a synth works, this could
bamboozle you, so a few examples of how
things link up in real synths have been included.
Sadly, it's still far too complicated to operate
in practice, because the screen is so cramped,
cluttered and confusing that it's easy to make a
mistake. If you do, the computer comes up with
a 'PATCH ERROR' message. Yeah, really helpful.
Er... That's not right
The complicated patching isn't the only problem
that dogs the program though. One snag that
crops up from the off is that when a sound is
May 1996
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Some help is given by example
synth configurations. It's a pity
that you couldn't put patches
together like this.
generated, it attempts to fill the entire memory,
so you have to work out how much memory a
sample is likely to need before you start. Call me
picky, but that's a bit of a chore to attempt
before starting work.
Unfortunately, the way that many other edit
screens work is also unusual. Not just in terms
of the user interface, but in the performance. For
example, rather than the cutoff of a filter being
varied over time (as every other synth does), the
amount of filtering is affected, often giving
unpredictable results. When you have to do all
your editing then wait a few minutes (not
seconds) to hear the results,
this kind of quirk is frustrating.
You often forget the kind of
sound you were trying to
create in the first place.
The delay in rendering is
inherent in such a system, but
it shouldn't mean that creating
sounds has to be such a
chore. Take Turbosynth for
example. That does the same
thing, but you create sounds
by dropping the required
modules on to a grid, linking them with an easy-
to-use cable system and clicking on them to edit
their settings, thus letting you decide how
complex you want to get rather than setting an
extremely rigid operating practice.
I thought these criticisms would mellow with
time, but the longer I tried to use the program,
the more niggling points started to annoy me.
The fact that this is the only Amiga program to do
the job isn't enough. Music is a creative process
- not an exercise in physics and programming.
Aural Synthetica's power is buried too deep to
make it an intuitive musician's tool. ■
Aural Syn t hetica
Price: £30(+P&P)
Supplier : Seasoft Computin g
Contact: 01903 850378
Verdict: 54%
Issue 62
Paul Overaa
ARexx compiler
ShopperReview
ARexx scripts are sometimes a
little slow. Can this new ARexx
compiler speed things up?
Paul Overaa investigates...
ARexx is an interpreted
language and one of its few
faults is that ARexx scripts
can be slow when running.
This guarantees that the
words 'ARexx compiler' always generate
interest amongst ARexx users.
Rexecute is an ARexx compiler in the sense
that it can produce standalone, executable
ARexx programs, i.e. programs that do not have
to be run using the RX command. It is also easy
to use. Just specify your script file, ask Rexecute
to 'compile' it to executable form, and you end
up with a version that you can run by double-
clicking its icon. This is of immediate benefit to
those ARexx users who find that making their
scripts Workbench runable by playing around
with IconX (and supporting AmigaDOS script
files) either tedious or awkward.
The Rexecute compiler produces four types
of output: the executable files mentioned; library
object code files that can be added to link
libraries of external ARexx functions; object code
modules that can be linked to C and Assembler
programs; and Rexecute script files. If you're
wondering why you would want to compile an
existing script file into another script file, it's
simple - the Rexecute front end enables you to
specify a variety of interrupt and trace options
and, when you let Rexecute output a script file,
it adds all the appropriate interrupt and trace
code statements to your code. It also removes
comment lines, making the script more compact.
Save time!
The main advantage of Rexecute, however, has
nothing to do with speed. It's that it has a nicely
organised scheme for using routines stored in
link libraries, where you can create your own
libraries and bring particular routines into your
scripts by using an #extern compiler directive.
Serious ARexx coders will find this feature
useful in reducing program development times.
A disassembler that enables you to turn an
executable program back into script form, plus a
separate librarian utility are also provided as part
of the package. If you are programming using C
or Assembler then there are other advantages to
be had too. For example, you can add your
compiled script to a program and execute it as
an ARexx command string. One nice touch is
that Rexecute itself is fully ARexx controllable
Issue 62
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Rexecute
"Ran Disk:dates
Object file wri
Executable file
'Ran Diskidates
COMPILE |
and has a list of over 75 ARexx commands
which cover practically all of its operations.
There is an introductory demo provided that
shows Rexecute's front end controllability to
good effect.
The documentation (AmigaGuide based),
could be improved; although quite extensive, the
basic ideas concerning the purpose of the
package aren't explained clearly enough for
ARexx beginners to understand.
It's not what it seems
There are disadvantages that become obvious
immediately you start 'compiling' scripts,
including the fact that compiled versions can
end up significantly larger than the original
scripts. One 2K script of mine ended up as a
1 4K executable! Another disadvantage is that
executable files still need to have ARexx up and
running in order to run. It was while looking at
the reasons for this that I found that Rexecute
DISExec,
the
Rexecule
disassembler,
can re-create
ARexx scripts
from executable
versions.
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Jargon buster
Interpreted Language: A computer language
which works by reading, interpreting and
then executing program statements on an
effectively line-by-line basis.
Link Library: A collection of existing
routines that can be added to a program
during a special stage called linking;
performed prior to running the program.
RX: The ARexx utility that is used to run
ARexx scripts from a Shell window.
May 1996
Left: Rexecute has an easy-
to-use front end.
Below: It enables you to set
things like the editors you
wish to use for reading and
editing files, using tool type
entries stored In the
Rexecute icon file.
kd
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Above: The Rexecute AmigaGuide manual is
comprehensive, but beginners would probably
prefer extra help with some basic principles.
doesn't really compile scripts at all - it just
wraps a directly runable execution environment
around them.
In fact if you look at the executables
produced by Rexecute using a debugger, you
will find the original ARexx script buried inside
the executable form. ARexx needs to be present
then because ARexx is running the script under
the surface in much the same way as always.
This explains why there are no speed
advantages to speak of, and why Rexecute is
unable to catch syntax errors in your code
during the compiling stage (ARexx is left to
catch these at run-time).
I am duty bound to look at Rexecute from a
number of different technical viewpoints, but do
keep what I've said about the program in
perspective. Rexecute is not expensive and
ARexx beginners looking for an easy way to
produce directly executable scripts, or a more
advanced user who likes the idea of using
Rexecute's library facilities, will find the program
good value for money. ■
Rexecut e
Price: £14.95
Supplier: Horizon Software (UK)
Contact: 01621 778778
Verdict: 82%
Amiga shopper 43
SuperDouble CD Pack
Squirrel MPEG
The superb SuperDouble CD-ROM is back! Using an excellent 2.4 speed drive
from Sony, this CD-ROM provides outstanding performance at an amazing
price. With a 360Kb/s data transfer rate and a 230ms access time, the SuperDouble
CD-ROM provides all the speed for the power user.
The SuperDouble is fully compatible with the new Squirrel MPEG card, supporting
the industry standard VideoCD (White Book) format.
The SuperDouble CD-ROM pack includes the award-winning AGA Experience
CD-ROM - rated 93% in issue 79 of Amiga Format. This CD-ROM is crammed
full of pictures, utilities, demos, animations and tools for AGA Amigas. The
SuperDouble pack also includes the latest Aminet CD-ROM. This disk is brimming
with the latest PD, shareware, utilities, demos and picture files from the Aminet
archives on the internet.
A full classic Squirrel is also included in the pack. This allows easy connection
of any SCSI peripheral to the A1200. The package has all the necessary drivers
and software for easy connection of hard drives, CD-ROMs and removable disk
drives, such as the Zip'" Drive, to your Amiga.
Jaz is a revolutionary 1Gb
removable hard disk system
for any Amiga with SCSI.
Like a Zip drive on
steroids, Jaz provides
astonishing
performance. Offering
data transfer rates of
up to 6MB/s and access
times of under 12ms.
For full information on this
amazing SCSI peripheral
contact HiSoft Systems.
• 1Gb Carts
• 6MB/sec
*599
plus PJP
Cinema4D
Professional Ray-Tracing and
Animation for your Amiga
Cinema4D is the easy-to-
use ray-tracing and animation
system for your Amiga.
Equipped with an intuition-
based multi-tasking editor,
Cinema4D is replete with every
conceivable option including
window-based real-time
interactive modelling, direct
modelling in 3D, basic and
complex primitives with infinite
variations, easy object
manipulation, floating toolbars,
user-defined menus, object and
texture lists, definable object
hierarchies, optimised versions
for 68020 (A1200 etc.) & FPUs,
and much more!
The Cinema4D animator brings
you even closer to the world of
"virtual reality", breathing life
into objects and scenes.
Whether you have your
spaceship dock with a
spacestation, or take a tour
around the darkest dungeon -
with Cinema4D it's so simple.
Just a few mouse clicks and you
will have your objects
move realistically through
time and space.
Cinema4D also includes
MagicLink, the flexible
object converter.
MagicLink converts all
popular object formats
(Imagine, Sculpt, DXF,
Reflections, etc.) to
Cinema4D format & back.
Squirrel
?MPEG
r
I he SCSI MPEG Flayer for your Amiga, Marl, Macintosh & IBM-PC Compattbk'
Bring the cinema into your home and onto your computer with Squirrel
MPEG '" . Playing the popular VideoCD and CD] CD-ROMs as well as
raw MPEG streams, Squirrel MPEG brings high quality digitally mastered
images and 16-bit stereo sound to you and your Amiga.
Squirrel MPEG is a SCSI peripheral that can be used in conjunction with
any SCSI controller, such as the Classic Squirrel'" or Surf Squirrel™, and
any VideoCD compatible CD-ROM. Squirrel MPEG can also be used as
a stand-alone unit, with a SCSI CD-ROM, as an addition to your TV,
Video and Hi-Fi setup.
Available from March 1996, Squirrel MPEG is the latest in an established
line of ground-breaking products, for you and your Amiga, from HiSoft
Systems.
Studio V2 Professional
The original colour management 4
system for your Amiga >J
Use Studio 2 to get the most out
of your printer. With its powerful
Workbench drivers, you will get
outstanding printed results from
your applications, every time.
Studio 2 brings professional
colour management to the Amiga,
ensuring that the colours on your
screen match the colours on your
printer.
Studio 2 is also directly supported
by the popular printer
manufacturers, and always
includes drivers for their latest
V printers.
~\
Set every conceivable print option
from the Studio preference program
DiskMAGIC
Easy File & Disk Management
Constantly doing battle with the
Shell/CLI? Stop this futile struggle with
DiskMAGIC, the easy-to-use file and
disk management utility from HiSoft.
DiskMAGIC simplifies every task you
perform, from the copying of disks and
files, to the viewing of pictures and
anims. In fact, after using DiskMAGIC,
you'll wonder how you ever used your
Amiga without it.
Order Hotline ^
(D 0500 223660
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Ziy, laz an trademarks of
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Larry Hickmott
ISO image writer
ShopperReview
Master
Writing information to a CD
needs special software - like
Master! SO from Asimware.
Larry Hickmott checks it out.
The CD player is one of the
most fashionable peripherals
these days. It has become
standard issue on the PC,
alongside the floppy disk
drive and hard drive; and it's starting to
become popular on the Amiga too.
However, while the 'normal' CD player gains
in popularity, another more interesting CD-ROM
device is starting to take off in a big way. One of
the world's largest computer suppliers, Hewlett-
Packard, tell me they are already at full stretch
trying to meet demand for their CD-writer, the
4020i, which costs less than £800. However,
these units are destined mainly for PCs.
The HP 4020i and others like it, will
nonetheless work with the Amiga, although the
path to compact disc Utopia is far from easy.
The problem is hardware. Software such as
MasterlSO already supports many CD writers.
The real limitations lie with the SCSI port you
may have on your Amiga.
Not all SCSI interfaces are
the same, and while people with
boxed Amigas and a SCSI card
like the 4091 , Fastlane Z3 or
Warp Engine, shouldn't have a
problem using these cards with CD
writers, other SCSI cards for boxed Amigas and
the A1 200 are an unknown quantity.
When reviewing MasterlSO, I expected to
be able to use my Squirrel with the Hewlett-
Packard 4020i CD writer, which is quite happily
(and brilliantly) working on the PC.
However, initial tests in trying to get the CD
writer working with the A1 200 failed; I will be
testing various other SCSI cards to see if this
can be overcome. Talking to some SCSI experts,
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they tend to agree that it's not surprising that
I've had problems, because a CD writer is a
demanding piece of kit, and the SCSI port has
be something special, with a full DMA, to cope.
Therefore, you may have to look a little
harder when buying a SCSI card because some
of those available for boxed Amigas and the
A1 200 will not automatically be compatible with
all SCSI devices, including CD writers.
Master software
MasterlSO from Asimware Innovations is
compatible with many CD writers, providing you
have an acceptable SCSI card. Unlike other
devices such as llopticals, floppy disks
and hard disks, writing
information to a CD requires
special software that can write
an ISO image.
A few years ago I thought
process must be really high tech,
but after using a CD writer on the PC and the
software on an Amiga, I found 'burning CD
images' is almost as simple as copying files
using a file manager.
MasterlSO takes a set of files and puts them
together in one big file called the ISO image.
This is then written to CD. When you look at the
disk with a file manager, or on Workbench, it
appears just like any other disk-based device.
MasterlSO makes the process very simple
and it only takes a few minutes to set up,
r
You may be forgiven for thinking that
when you buy a SCSI port for your
Amiga, you will be able to use it
with all those SCSI devices out
there in PC and Macintosh land.
Not so. In the space of a few
days, I had difficulties getting the
H-P CD writer to work with the
Amiga and then a SCSI version of
the GT-5000. Until then it had been
fine with a number of normal CD
players and hard disks.
Issue 62 I
Those most at risk from possible
incompatibility problems are Amiga
1200 owners. If you have a boxed
L Amiga like the A4000, then a
A4091, FastLane Z3 or Warp
Engine tend to be quite reliable
(although nothing's perfect).
The moral of this is to
check and double check that the
SCSI card you want to buy will
work with the type of SCSI devices
you intend to use.
May 1996
Left: Creating a CD is as simple as
choosing the files you want, and then
having MasterlSO build an ISO image
ready to be written to a blank CD.
Below: On the second of two screens
in MasterlSO, you can give your CD a
volume name and set many other,
more specialised attributes.
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while the writing of the ISO image takes a lot
longer. Hardly surprising when you can write
600Mb of data to a disc. However, the longest
process by far is compiling the data on your
hard drive ready for MasterlSO.
I have used MasterlSO to create ISO images
which are transferred on to CD on the PC and a
few things about the software are noticeable.
One is that it can't do a direct write to CD like I
can on the PC. The ISO image needs to be
'built' on the hard drive and then written to CD.
This is being changed for version 2, I am told.
Speed control
Another function that MasterlSO lacks is a
feature to set the speed of the write. In some
circumstances, it is useful to slow down the
write from a dual-speed write to a single-speed
write in case of buffering problems. The
publishers of MasterlSO tell me that speed
control will be implemented for version 2. As will
multisession support.
However, I found MasterlSO easy to use,
although I felt Asimware could have provided
more information and functions for creating
audio CDs. Not everyone will want to create just
data CDs, which are dead easy anyway.
From what Asimware have implied,
version 2 of MasterlSO will be the one to look
out for, so check out what the upgrade options
are first, because although version 1 does the
job, it lacks a number of key features which
should appear in version 2. ■
Ma s terlSO Versio n 1
Price: £129.95 "
Supplier: Blittersoft
Contact: 01908 261466
Verdict: 85%
Amiga shopper 45
ShopperReview
3D modelling
Gary Whiteley
Macro
Modelling curved or complex
models in LightWave can
be frustrating. MacroForm
aims to make this easier, as
Gary Whiteley finds out.
While LightWave is a
heavy duty 3D package,
there are inevitably
times when it comes up
short. One area in
particular where it fails to measure up to
competition like Real3D is in its modelling
of complex curved objects. Not only can
such objects be difficult to create, they
often don't look as good as the smooth
spline-based models created with Real3D.
Now, I can't say that the results of rendering
MacroForm objects measure up to the output of
Real3D, but they bring LightWave users closer
than models made within LightWave alone.
Ultimately, this is because Real3D uses spline
and mathematical CSG (definition) procedures
to produce its models, whereas LightWave is
almost entirely dependent on polygonal objects;
so unless your LightWave model is divided into
a very large number of polygons, it is unlikely
ever to look as smooth as a Real3D object.
MacroForm helps LightWave modellers
achieve a smoother look, as well as providing
help when modelling objects with complex
curves and curved edges. However, the
program's makers say you shouldn't use it with
LightWave 4, because LightWave 4 makes
MacroForm run very slowly. They recommend
using LightWave 3.5 until further notice.
It's an ARexx thing
One of the hidden strengths of the Amiga is its
ARexx capability, which LightWave makes good
The slice and dice Railforming variant segments
an object ready for further manipulation.
46 AlMKM SHOPPER
use of with its Modeller Macros. MacroForm
extends this capability by providing a range of
modelling procedures which operate via
compiled ARexx scripts. Not only does
MacroForm build on Modeller3D's existing tools,
but it adds several new ones to
turbocharge your modelling. These
include a range of powerful
Railforming variants including
twist, mould, scale and rout, slice
and dice (to chop existing objects
into bite-size chunks ready for
further manipulation), align and
centre functions, and distance
and angle calculators.
For your money, you get three
disks containing MacroForm and a
range of tutorial examples to
plough through in tandem with
MacroForm's extensive,
but rather technical and dry manual.
MacroForm isn't for beginners. You
need a sound understanding of
LightWave's modelling concepts,
especially more complex ones like
spline curves and free form modelling.
It also requires plenty of patience to
get through the manual; although it
offers many tutorials, most of them
load their objects and examples
without need for any user intervention.
In fact, because the concept of
MacroForm is quite different to most
of the built-in functions of LightWave
I May 1996
it seems hard to get to grips with using it as an
extension to M3D. Sadly, MacroForm's manual
doesn't explain how to do your own thing with it,
relying instead on self-contained tutorials which
never give the feeling that you're fully in control.
There isn't room to describe all of
MacroForm's many functions, but you
can see from the objects in the
rendered illustration above that the
possibilities are there. A good
starting point for many shapes is
the NewBox tool, which enables
the user to build segmented and
round-edged boxes ready for
sculpting further. By using Rail-type
tools, segmented objects can be
moulded in diverse ways by using
control and free-form curves to
bend, twist, mould and shape
simple forms into complex curved
objects. Many of these functions can be
changed interactively during the modelling
process, though some are non-reversible.
MacroForm is a tool for serious
LightWave modellers who are not happy with
Modeller's shortcomings and want more control
over their objects. ■
MacroForm
Price: $21 5 (about £165)
Supplier: Activa UK & Anti-Gravity Products
Contact: 0181 402 5770
Verdict: 75%
Issue 62
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CD-ROMs
David Taylor
out
check
Harvesting a bumper crop of CD-ROMs, David Taylor separates the corn from the chaff.
Our postbag is overflowing
with new CD-ROMs again,
so we thought it was about
time that we covered a
whole batch and cleared
the decks for the next wave. Ever popular,
there are a couple of picture library
CD-ROMs, plus a new Aminet CD. There
are also a couple of CDs for 3D users and
one multimedia presentation.
The Colour Library
There was a time when picture libraries were
being released for over £20 each. That's quite
a lot for home users to pay for what are
supposedly PD pictures. But now, more and
more discs are appearing at the much more
reasonable £1 mark.
The Colour Library is a multi-format CD, but
unlike some it caters very well for Amigas.
There's a complete selection of the necessary
system files as well as a couple of PD
programs, like ImageStudio, for you to use with
the images. There's also a custom front end
which enables you to search the index, browse
through the pictures and view them.
There are 1 ,700 pictures in total, supplied in
a couple of different formats, including IFFs for
Amigas. The selection is certainly varied, but so
U1H6BI
is the quality. Some of the pictures are very
good, such as the animals selection, but others
are poor-quality scans whose moire patterning
betrays the printed source. This is a decent
photo library and DTP users are likely to find it
useful, but do you really need another picture
CD? It's up to you.
The Colour Library
Price: £9.99
Supplier: PDSoft
Contact: 01702 466933
Verdict: 80%
Aminet 10
Aminet is as good a source of new Shareware
as ever. It seems that a fair proportion of
software uploaded is merely an update of
previous software and not original stuff, but
there are some brand new utilities and besides,
it's always best to have the latest versions of
things anyway. The Aminet CD compilers
have realised that to justify the frequent release
of their CDs, they need to offer a little bit more;
so the last few releases have also contained
some full commercial software for free. This
time it's PageStream 2.2 and a special edition
of TypeSmith.
The complete PageStream 2.2 as well as a
functioning TypeSmith are on Aminet 10.
What can I say? All the quality of Aminet for
you to browse as well as PageStream. It's a bit
of bargain really.
Aminet 10
Price: £11.99
Sup plier: Active Software
Contact: 01325 352260
Verdict: 90%
Star buy
Nothing But GIFs AG A
It's strange that a CD designed for the Amiga
with its own AmigaGuide-based interface and
everything working directly from the CD should
48 Amiga shopper
I May 1996
3D-GFX has a set of objects for many different
3D programs as well as a host of utilities and a
lot of example
pictures of
renderings. It's a
fine CD, but
might be found a
little lacking or
incomplete by
some people.
Issue 62
David Taylor
CD-ROMs
contain GIFs. But this one does, so there you
go. It means that you might need some software
to change the format if you want to use the
pictures in some packages. Anyway, the
AmigaGuide is easy to navigate and well
ordered. The pictures are well chosen and look
very good. There are sections for real and
rendered, each divided into obvious categories.
Amongst some of the finest are the abstract
images that are simply enchanting.
Nothing But GIFs AG A
Price: £19.99
Supplier: 1 7-Bit Software
Contact: 01924 366982
Verdict: 84%
3D-GFX
Here's another well-ordered CD. It contains
objects, textures, scenes and projects as well as
a selection of utilities. The utilities are very well
compiled, but you get the impression that there
is actually less here than meets the eye. The
textures directory contains remarkably few
textures and too often you look into a plurally-
named directory to find a single item.
Having said all that, this CD does have a
hell of a lot on it, just not as much as it could
have done. The directory structure has its clarity
to commend it. All in all, 3D-GFX is a very
good CD and well worth investing in, but the
12 month development time should have turned
up more material.
3D-GFX
Price: £21.99
Supplier: PeeJay
Contact: 0181 985 3850
Verdict: 89%
World Atlas
Well, I did say that M.M.Experience was very
capable of creating a professional release and
sure enough, here is one. World Atlas is a
multimedia CD that must have taken a very long
time to compile. There is information on each
country presented in a variety of ways. There's a
little text about each, as well the national flag
and then a set of maps showing lots of different
details and positions. The maps are of excellent
quality and the final round up of details including
population, religion, languages and GDP are
very interesting.
The text introduction to each part is the only
■BftKfrialtKI
World Atlas has a
graphical front end
that gets lost too
easily, but it's full of
Information and top
quality graphics.
downside. Although it contains some things that
I never knew, even about England, it looks a little
sparse. In terms of presentation too, this is the
worst area, because of M.M. Experience's one
failing - its boring text handling.
However, the index is extremely thorough,
linking not only countries and capitals, but
dates and products so that you can find out
who, what, where and why from almost any
angle. When you first start the package you
come to the main map, but I found it hard to get
back to that map after I'd worked my way
through a few levels. It's always possible to
move using the Index, but I liked the graphical
part for browsing.
This is not a research CD, but more a
leisure one to browse through. If you're
wondering whether it's worth getting for the
educational value for children, I'd say yes, but
only if they have a penchant for geography.
World Atlas
Price: £29.99
Supplier: WiseDome Limited
Contact: 0171 702 9823
Verdict: 90%
Star buy
Texture Portfolio
Lots and lots of royalty free textures. High
quality supplied in JPEG, PICT and Targa
format. If you want to use them in commercial
renderings you need Ground Zero's written
permission. If you're not a 3D artist (or possibly
2D), you'll not be interested. If you are, what
more can I say? Nothing. If you need more
textures, here you go. ■
Texture Portfolio
Price: £29.99
Supplier: Ground Zero
Issue 62 I
May 1996
Contact: 0117 907 6733
Verdict: 93%
Star buy
Amiga shopper 49
ShopperReader ads
May 1996
Issue 62
mi-
Turn your excess equipment into cash, or find a true bargain. Sell, buy, swap, exchange... no matter
what your intentions are, these are the only pages that reach the truly devoted Amiga users.
FOR SALE
• Amiga 4000/040 computer, c/w
10Mb RAM, 240Mb hard disk, 24-bit
graphic card, genlock and multisync,
high resolution monitor, plus AdPro,
Morph Plus, Scala 300, Real 3D 2,
Deluxe Paint 4, Scroller 2. A2A Adobe
Font Maker, Quarterback Tools,
Simpatica Machine Controller. £2,000.
"0114 2555000.
• 68020 A2000, 300Mb HD,
SCSI interface, monitor, V34 Supra
288 fax modem, 5Mb RAM and lots of
original software. Internet ready with
registered AmiTCP, £500. E-mail:
Jonathan.Moora@MIRA.co.uk, or call
"01203 355289.
• CD 32 plus SX-1 , plus black
keyboard, Network CDs 1 + 2, mouse,
joypad, serial and parallel leads, six
games, including Tower Assault and
Super Stardust. Worth over £600, will
accept £300 ovno. Call Stuart on
" 0181 698 4276, or E-mail on
stuart@draught.demon.co.uk
• SIMMs 6 x 1Mb 32-pin. Offers.
" 01780 721898, or E-mail:
dmclean@woridscope.net.
• Amiga 486/50MHz SLC
bridgeboard with 4Mb RAM, 16-bit
sound card, VGA card and multi
I/O card. Price £400. Call " +3531
820 9529 now.
• Amiga 1200, Zappo CD-ROM
drive, high quality colour printer. Loads
of software including Page 4.1.
Professional sale due to upgrade. All
for £400 ono. Mike " 01452 780482.
• Power PCI 208 RAM card, uses
32 SIMMs and PCMCIA friendly,
includes BB clock and FPU socket.
£40. PCMCIA card suit A600/A1 200,
4Mb, £1 50. CD 32 £95, games
included, tt 01865 375767.
• CD-ROM quad speed Mitsumi IDE
internal drive with Audio Excel 1 6
sound card or Tandem controller. Price
£150. Call " +3531 820 9529 now.
• Amiga 4000, 6Mb RAM,
120Mb HD, 1942 monitor, LightWave
3D and all system software, all boxed.
Will split. Contact CPL Moffat,
BMM Rinteln, BFPO 31. " 0049 5722
5953, evenings.
• DICE C Compiler v3.01 , unused,
£80; or will exchange for Real 3D v2.x.
E-mail: U9401 438@boumemouth.ac.uk,
or phone ■ 01202 789433
(Bournemouth), ask for Rob.
• For sale! Mag CD-ROMs, £2 each,
including P&P, or five CDs for only £8.
50 AMK3ASHOPPER
Phone Matthew on " 0973 301 882,
or " 0181 523 8058 (office hours).
• For sale! 50 3.5-inch high density
disks, £10 including P&P. Phone
Matthew on * 0973 301 882
(evenings), or " 0181 523 8058
(office hours).
• Supra fax modem 14400
baud, up to V.32 bis, includes modem
software. £75 ono. Phone Mario
"01203 386947.
• Power supply unit for A500,
A600, A1 200. Only £1 5. Call Trev after
6pm on " 0181 851 0317.
• A2000 2Mb RAM A2091 SCSI
controller, 60Mb hard drive, A2088
PC XT bridgeboard. Call Dave on
"01395 263754. £200.
• Zappo CD-ROM with power
supply, two joypads and startup
software. £95 ono. « 0181 467 2516.
• For sale! 1 00 3.5-inch high
density disks. £10, including P&P.
Phone Matthew on " 0973 301882
(evenings), or " 0181 523 8058
(office hours).
• Perform a 450, 8/1 20 one
year old, colour, 1 4-inch Perf Plus
monitor, vgc, boxed. ClarisWorks 3
and Filemaker Pro 2, £800.
"01780 721898, or E-mail:
dmclean@worldscope.net.
• For sale: two Amiga 600s, one
Wild Weird Wicked, one Epic with
HD. £190 each or £350 for the two!
Quick sale required. Offers considered.
" 01646 683411.
• Tandem IDE HD + CD-ROM
controller for 1500-4000. Price £50.
Call " +3531 820 9529 now.
• Amiga A1200, 10Mb RAM, 85Mb
internal hard drive, 40MHz GVP
A1230-II accelerator and FPU £600
ono. Contact: Mike " 01626 821315.
• Power Computing external
quad speed CD-ROM drive, two
months old. Cost £1 99, will accept
£165. Mint condition, boxed with
manual, leads, etc. Call after 6.30pm.
"0161 230 6914, Steve.
• Amiga 1200, Blizzard 4Mb with
FPU, 420Mb hard disk, HD disk drive,
Microvitec 1 438 monitor, fast modem,
Squirrel SCSI-II, CD-ROM drive,
speakers, sound sampler, mouse, two
joysticks, hand scanner, over 1 ,200
disks of software, CD software. £1,100
ono. Phone Redcar " 01642 474599,
ask for Andrew.
• GVP HC8-II, 50Mb HDD, 2Mb
RAM, £1 20, A2286 emulator, 3.5-inch
and 5.25-inch floppies, £80. Future
Domain smart SCSI I/O PC card £25;
all with manuals, software and cables.
"01296 22669.
• Imagine 4, just arrived from
Impulse USA. Bargain at £75. Also
LW3D for good offer. Call " 01405
860798, evenings or weekends.
• A1200 Desktop Dynamite, 6Mb
RAM, 540Mb HD, 50MHz 68030, vgc
external floppy, all boxes and manuals
£750 plus postage. Call Mike "0131
346 7665, after 7pm.
• Megalosound 8-bit stereo
sampler, brand new, still shrink-
wrapped in original box with full
software, manuals, etc. £1 5.
Write to: David J. M. McCorkell, 27
Dalriada Walk, Ballymena, Co. Antrim
BT42 40Y.
• SIMMs, 1Mb, 72-pin SIMMs,
£1 7.50 each, or four for £60. Phone
" 01362 694976, ask for Barry.
• A1200 with 1 20Mb HD, software
worth £300, plus games and
magazines, excellent condition. £300.
Goliath 22Wat1 power supply, new,
£40. Amiga Computing since 1994
with disks, £1 .25 each. Kiran "0181
575 8489.
• Amiga Video Back-up v3.0 and
v1 .5, store 1 50 disks to tape or
back-up H/D. £25 P&P free. " 0161
790 0962.
• Amiga 1 200 as new, plus extra
disk drive, only £250. Price includes
pay on delivery service by Parcel Force.
Steve "0973 81 41 23.
• Amiga genlock for sale. I have
two and one must go. Rendale 8802
or Rocgen Plus. Call for details. David
" 01 247 274408.
• A500+ 5Mb with hard disk
controller, 80Mb hard drive and extra
memory. Phillips monitor, loads of
software (serious and fun), with
manuals. £360 and Amiga games. Call
Kiran after 6pm "0181 575 8489.
• PC Task 3.1, boxed with manual,
£45; Amiga Shopper's with disks since
1993 £1.25 each the lot; Amiga
Format with disks since 1994 £1.25
each the lot. Kiran " 0181 575 8489,
after 5pm.
• 85Mb Seagate 2.5 hard disk
£40, 4Mb 72-pin SIMMs £30. Phone
" 01 273 553266, ask for Patrick.
• A1200 with 127Mb H/D
packed with application and games
software. Original boxes, manuals, etc.
included. Joystick, etc., etc. Phone for
details; asking price £330. Call David
"01247 274408.
• A4000/30 1 0Mb RAM, 1 20Mb
HD, Picasso II colour card,
Commodore 1 942 monitor, Co-Pro,
second drive with LightWave,
Photogenics, Final Writer, TV Paint Jr,
AMOS Pro, plus games, all manuals
supplied. £1 ,500 ovno. Phone evenings
on Southampton " 01 703 443907.
• A4000/40 with 21 4Mb hard
drive, 8Mb RAM, multisync monitor,
CD-ROM, LC200 printer, including
Scala MM220, DP4, PageStream,
DirOpus 4, Wordworth, excellent
condition. £1,500. Phone Julian
" 01865 376697, evenings.
• A4000/040 68882 FPU, 1 0Mb
RAM, 320Mb HD, Philips monitor,
excellent condition, original software,
including LightWave 3D. Colour
digitiser, 1 ,000 misc. floppies, books
and magazines. £1 ,200 in total.
"01424 446359.
• For sale! 1 00 5.25-inch high
density disks, £7.50 including P&P.
Phone Matthew on " 0973 301 882
(evenings), or " 0181 523 8058
(office hours).
• A1200 420Mb hard drive, US
Robotics 1 4,400 fax modem, original
software and games. Immaculate
condition, £330 ono. Call Carl on
"01455 552409.
• Memory: 4x1 Mb SIMMs (30-pin),
£1 5 each. PPage 3 + 40 CG fonts
£15, Amiga educational software,
three-disk games, nine CD games,
priced £3-£8. Amiga BASIC book
£6. For details call (Cobham)
"01932 865057.
• AMOS Pro Compiler, IntOS £35;
Directory Opus v4 £1 0. All complete
with boxes and manuals. Mastering
Amiga DOS 2 books, volumes 1 and 2
£10. "01206 573634.
• A1200, 250Mb HD, 50MHz,
SCSI-II, 6Mb Fast FPU accelerator,
monitor, Citizen 240C printer,
external drives, Vidi 24RT, Zappo
CD-ROM, AMOS Pro Compiler,
Imagine 3, Essence II, Forge, Vista 3,
games. Separate offers welcome.
"01332 273679.
• Alpha Data HD drive, 40Mb for
A500, £100; Theme Park, AMOS 3D,
AMOS Compiler, all £1 5 each, all
boxed; Action Replay III, £1 5. Phone
Baz " 01302 337839, Doncaster.
• CD 32 for sale, Diggers, Oscar,
Microcosm, Now Games 1 and Lamb
American Challenge. 1 4 Coverdiscs.
Phone Rory on " 01343 542096.
Offers around £90 ono.
Issue 62
May 1996
ShopperReader ads
• DCTV 24-bit digitiser and 24-bit
paint package. Plays back hi-res
24-bit anims in real time. Records
straight from box. Great for 3D
animators, £100 including postage.
Martin "01 298 22862.
• Amiga 1200, plus GVP 6830
Turbo accelerator, 1 0Mb RAM, 1 20Mb
hard drive, Zappo CD-ROM drive. Plus
3D programs. Total worth £1,100, will
accept £650. » 01924 862063.
• Amiga 4000/030 with 16Mb
RAM, 249 HD, Microvitec 1438
monitor, external disk drive, GVP 4008
SCSI board, colour hand scanner, plus
games. £2,000 ono. Call "0161 284
9435, ask for Mike.
• International One Day Cricket,
good condition, fully boxed with manual.
£8. Ring Philip on » 01702 714174.
Please phone between 9am and 7pm.
• A4000 030, 6Mb RAM, 320Mb
HD, 68882 FPU. Microvitec multisync
monitor. Citizen HQP-40, 24-pin colour
printer and external floppy drive. Also
4Mb GVP RAM and software. £1 ,200
ono. Phone Derek f 01483 505801.
• Amiga memory SIMM for sale.
For more information please phone Lee
on = 0956 451 748 any time, or I can
phone you back after 7.05pm for a free
chat, problem solving, etc.
• Amiga 4000/40 6Mb RAM,
400Mb HD, extra internal HD disk
drive, HD full of games, art programs,
various utilities. Boxed with all disks,
manuals, keys. As new. £1,175.
"0181 679 8988.
• Wordworth 2 plus The Publisher,
Interbase; all original disks, manuals.
Also manual only for Kindwords 3. £50
the lot. Scala HVT1 00 with manual
£30, or swap lot/Blizzard 1220/4 4Mb
RAM add-on. = 0181 575 7558.
• A 1200, 6Mb RAM, 240Mb hard
disk. 50MHz 68030 and 68882,
PhillipB CM8833-II, Canon BJ-200,
Roctec Roclite, GVP D558+, software
and magazines. Excellent for DTP.
£1 ,000 ono. Phone Oliver on
"0121 354 7843.
• CD 32 with SX-1 expansion module
and keyboard, mouse, 80Mb hard
drive, one floppy drive. 3Mb total
memory. All for £300. Call David on
n 01257 400481.
• Amiga 500+ for sale, 2Mb RAM,
GVP 52Mb hard disk, Philips
CM8833-II colour monitor. Much
software, gold disk office, Deluxe
Paint IV. Plus Naksha mouse and disks.
£325. Phone "01252 713822.
• A1200 4Mb RAM on Hawk board,
540K HD, Archos duel speed CD
external disc drive, B/W hand scanner,
games and DTP software galore. £650
ovno. Call Ray * 0256 497 518.
• A 1200 127Mb hard drive, 4Mb
RAM expansion, external floppy drive,
genlock. Ideal for DTV software,
includes applications and games. Will
split. Best offer takes the lot. Call David
on "01247 274408.
• A1200 Workbench 3.0, MUI 3.2,
WB 2.0, registered versions, 1 20Mb
hard disk, external floppy, A1230
68030/68882, 40MHz, 8Mb RAM,
Microvitec monitor 1 438 200,
PowerCD drive (2x) with CD's (two
weeks old), Squirrel SCSI interface,
Megalosound, two joysticks, Final
Writer 4, Imagine 3.0, DirOpus 4.1 1,
ImageFX 1.5, Zyxel 14.4 modem,
software and games. All in perfect
working order. Included a one month
warranty. All this for £1 ,400 ovno. Clive
Hollans, E-mail: te940192@newi.ac.uk,
or = 01352 759722.
WANTED
• GVP A530 HD/accelerator wanted.
Any spec, any condition, even broken!
Call Keith on « 01567 820816 now!
• Wanted: Workbench 3.0 OS. Write
to: Marcus Lord, 60 Bedford Avenue,
High Crompton, Shaw, Oldham, Lanes.
OL2 7DW. « 01706 8401 16 between
5pm-6pm. All week.
• Hilsea Udo £9.99, Sim City 2000
£15, AMOS Pro £15, Gloom £12,
Roadkill AGA £1 0, Tornado AGA £1 0.
Contact Dave Hogben at 1 28 Gaston
Way, Shepperton, Middx. TW17 8ES.
• Wanted: Powerscan 4 colour, or
Epson flatbed, ProGrab 24RT and must
be latest version, A1200 Blizzard 030
accelerator, with or without RAM. Call
Paul before 5pm on n 01 13 255 5585.
• Amiga 2000/3000/4000
keyboard, reasonable price paid.
Any condition considered.
w 01 203 675299.
• Wanted: ADI Junior reading 4/5
6/7. Please write to: Randall, 107
Hornhill Road, Maple Cross,
Rickmansworth, Herts. WD3 2TG.
• A3640 040 daughterboard to
upgrade 4000/030 to 040CPU. Cash
waiting for your chance to upgrade.
Call David " 01 247 274408.
• Amiga 500 users from anywhere
as contacts or would sell or swap. Lend
me an operating manual for the Zappo
SCSI 3.5-inch HD. Please drop me a
few lines: Steven P. Hyde, 20 Charles
Street, Rugby, Warks. CU21 2EW,
• Internet users! I need my anims
uploaded on to Aminet. Want to help?
Jonathan, RM21 , Hampshire Block,
North Hampshire Hospital, Aldermaston
Road, Basingstoke RG24 9NA.
• Excellence word processor with
thesaurus and dictionary. Please ring
Leicester tt 01 16 291 1323.
• AMOS Pro Compiler. Will pay fair
price. Call me on » 01 692 404642.
• Wanted for Amiga A500. DataFlyer
or GVP or similar SCSI hard disk.
(Basically to run a Quantum type hard
disk.) Call Dave » 01522 684590.
• Aladdin 4D must be A1 condition.
Will make good offer and pay P&P
with manual. " 01469 576487, home
» 01469 577088, South Humberside.
Ask for Mac.
• Analog Joystick for A1 200. Please
ring "0151 355 8763.
• GVP HD8+ hard drive for Amiga
500.^01758 612615.
PERSONAL
• Pen pals wanted to swap games,
software and tips for Amiga 1 200.
Send your lists to: Zoe Green, 35
Constantino Place, Baldock, Herts.
SG7 6ST.
• Want to get more from Blitz
BASIC? Write to: Blitz, M. Tillet, 27
Hillside Avenue, Worlingham, Beccles,
Suffolk NR34 7AJ. Monthly magazine
on paper.
• Pentrisoft, the programmers' user
group. Tips, advice and contacts. Free
membership. Write to: Mark Harman, 3
Highlea Close, St. Leonards, o/s, East
Sussex TN37 7SS for details.
fanzines/bbss
• Visions. A new SF/fantasy/horror
fanzine (printed) needs fiction and
artwork for issue one. Send S.A.E. for
full details to: S. Kennedy. 41 Larwood,
Worksop, Notts. S81 0HH.
• No Limits BBS 01293 41 3668,
v34+, 1.2Gb, Xendrix Pro software,
very friendly SysOp, free call to other
Eurobell subscribers, complete Fidonet
backbone, many other networks, perfect
for points. Binarynet HQ!
• Echoes BBS, Camberley, Fidonet.
Sportsnet, plus many more. Always the
latest Aminet CD-ROM online. Free
pointing all networks, Xenolink Pro
software, friendly, helpful SysOp. All
welcome, 24 hours 01 276 62099.
• Entity's a new diskmag that aims to
keep Amiga alive by getting you
creating. Issue one and two ready.
Contact: Jono, 25 Denness Place,
Llandudno LL30 2UX, for more info.
• New Amiga diskmag. Only £2 for
two disks on AMOS, Imagine, PD and
lots more. Contact me via post for info:
Jono, 25 Denness Place, Llandudno,
Gwynedd, Wales LL30 2UX.
• Mogsy's BBS. Contact Anthony
Morris on « 01772 496590. Amiga
only! Over 1 ,000 files on-line and CDs
to choose from! Speeds 2400 to
28,800. 24 hours. Call today!
• Black Magic BBS. Online
midnight till breakfast. 1 4400, full
graphic (IFF) adventure game with
sound. Online soon! It's a new BBS so
spread the word, n 01482 473458. ■
Sell your used hardware and software in Amiga Shopper... for free! AS62
The editor reserves the right to refuse or amend ads. We accept no responsibility for typographical errors or losses
arising from the use of this service. Trade ads will not be accepted, including PD advertising.
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Address: (Not for publication) .
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.Post code_
Date
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For Sale Wanted
Personal
□
Fanzines
Return to: Reader Ads, Amiga Shopper,
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Bath, Avon BA1 2BW
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I have read and understood the conditions for the inclusion of my ad
Signature
Use one space for each word. Only the words in this section will be printed.
Amgm SHOPPER 51
Shop per Answers
Q&A
David Taylor
Gary Coulter' lovely picture shows the quality achievable when different machines work in harmony, instead of being separate
entities. The renderings were done in LightWave on the Amiga with textures done in Photoshop on the PC. Remember, even
if your picture doesn't win here, we may still use your efforts elsewhere in Amiga Shopper. If you want to win £25, send your
picture as a JPEG to: David Taylor, Amiga Shopper, Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth St, Bath BA1 2BW.
If you are stuck
with a problem
on your Amiga
and you just can't
find a solution,
write in to Amiga
Answers, where our panel of
experts are here to help you.
They can deal with all sorts of
problems; DTP, video, music,
Operating Systems, monitors,
word processing, programming,
Workbench, networking -
anything that you can do with
your Amiga, in fact. Just fill in
your details in the form on page
57 and send it in!
52 Amiga answers
Paul Overaa is our
Operating Systems
programming expert. He
has written several
books, including:
Mastering Amiga
Assembler, Mastering
Amiga ARexx and
Mastering Amiga C.
His main interest is in program design and
he is heavily into the music side of the
Amiga. Paul's other interests include red
wine, maths and wind-surfing!
Gary Whiteley is our
expert on video and
graphics. He regularly
produces work for
films and TV. Gary has
also written several
books on his favourite
subjects - amongst
them is Amiga
Desktop Video, published by Future
Publishing (call « 01225 82251 1 to order a
copy). Gary also regularly reviews new
products for Amiga Shopper.
May 1996
John Kennedy is our
hardware and music
expert. John has written
Supertests and features
alike for Amiga Shopper
in the past, including
the CD-ROM Supertest
in issue 49 and our
monitor Supertest in
issue 55. He has written our CanDo
Coverdisk instructions this month, and he is
co-writing our music tutorial with Darren
Irvine (see page 60).
Larry Hickmott is our
DTP and word
processing expert.
He produces his own
DTP magazine called
Em and has written
several books, including
The Wordworth
Companion for Digita
and Future Publishing's books division. This
month Larry answers your queries in Amiga
Answers and has also written the review of
MasterlSO on page 45.
Issue 62
David Taylor
Q&A
Shop per Answers
Adding fonts to PPage
have recently purchased a CD
with thousands of CompuGraphic
and PostScript type 1 fonts and
want to know how I can use them
with ProPage. Can you tell me
what I need to know to install the fonts and also
whether I need to convert the PostScript fonts
when I already have the CG Fonts.
Lawrence Sparks
Stevenage
ProPage can make use of two types of fonts,
Amiga bitmaps and CompuGraphic fonts. If you
intend using a PostScript printer, ProPage also
requires a PSFont which is the PostScript
equivalent of a CGFont used on-screen.
Forget about the Amiga bitmap fonts that
come with ProPage, unless you want to use
them as your screen fonts when using a
PostScript printer. In other words, on-screen
you would use the Amiga bitmap font Times,
and then when that page is printed to a
PostScript printer, the PostScript type 1 version
of Times in the printer is used to print the page.
To install CGFonts for use with ProPage 4,
you need three files for each font Using the
example of Times again, the three files would
be called; Times.dat, Times.metric and
Times.lib. As you can see, the name of the font
remains, while the extension changes. When
Answers contents
If you're looking for a particular
problem, this handy index will help
you find the answers you need:
Fonts and ProPage .
Fountain
ProGrab problems
Gadtools Buttons
Modifying Start-Up_
HiSoft BASIC 2
Grabbing advice
Genlock advice
Psion 3 link
ProGrab problem
RTTY solved
Recording samples .
_53
_53
_54
_54
_55
_55
_55
_56
_56
_56
_57
57
Issue 62
installing a font for ProPage you have to make
sure that you have one of the three extensions
present after each of the three files. Older
versions of ProPage used an extension called
".ate" but this is no longer required.
To install the CGFonts, use a file manager
such as Opus or DirWork to copy the three
files to the directory called CGFonts. Now go
to Workbench and find the utility in ProPage's
drawer called CGJJpdate. Double click on this
and it will update a couple of files in CGFonts
so ProPage can use these new fonts.
In some instances, you may find that when
you run ProPage, the new fonts are not listed.
To correct this, go to CGFonts using your file
manager (Opus, etc) and delete the file called
"fontlist.pp ". Now reset your Amiga and run
ProPage again. The fonts should now be visible
in your typeface requester.
The final question about whether to use the
PostScript type 1 fonts on your CD depends
on whether you use PostScript printers or are
ever likely to in the future. If the answer is yes,
then use Font Manager to convert the Type 1
fonts to a CGFont for use with ProPage, as
well as answering yes when asked if you
would like the downloadable printer fonts
copied to CGFonts:PS.
That way, you will have your CGFonts for
use on-screen and if you ever print to a
PostScript printer, and you select "Include
Downloadable Fonts" in the "Print to
PostScript" requester, the PSFont created by
Font Manager will be included in the PostScript
file for use by the PostScript printer. My advice
is don 't burn your bridges and click yes to this
option in Font Manager. At worst, if you want to
save on disk space, you can copy all your
PSFonts from the PS drawer in CGFonts to a
floppy disk until the day comes when you
require them. Larry
Fountain
My son has tried to load Fountain
from the Extras 2 disk of his A500
Plus (Workbench 2.04). No matter
what we do it comes up with an
"unable to open library 37" error
message. We've tried running the program from
hard disk and from the Workbench floppy.
Any ideas on what is going wrong and,
more importantly, how we can fix it?
A. Jarvis
Southsea, Hampshire
Fountain is the old version of the Amiga outline
font utility that is now called Intellilont. You
need at least version 37 of a library called the
diskfont library to run the program. This library
should be in the libs: directory ol your hard
disk, but the error message is telling you that
the library isn't there! Although I haven't got a
Release 2 Amiga around, I believe that the
ProPage can
make use of
two types of
fonts, Amiga
bitmaps and
CGFonts.
a I untitled 1 I BIB.
I, JH CGTriunvirate JHfTCinE'M^i^i^BaigaElllffi
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Worduorth 5 S \M Ngita International
433 PH
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1AUI Paau !♦!♦!
May 1996
Amiga answers 53
Shop per Answers
Q&A
David Taylor
ProGrab problems
I recently bought a
ProGrab 24RT Plus
video grabber and
was so Impressed
with the stills I got
from it that I thought
I would Invest in the PCMCIA
interface as well.
I was particularly drawn to
the fact that it (apparently)
allows animations to be grabbed
direct to hard disk. The problem
is, however, that this feature
does not appear to function on
my machine.
The equipment I'm using is
as follows: A1200 (circa 1993);
80Mb IDE hard disk with
approximately 30Mb free; 4Mb
32-bit Fast RAM; Panasonic SD40
video recorder (with SCART
input); ProGrab 24RT Plus with
PCMCIA interface.
OK, what happens is this: I
select the options to grab a colour
animation to disk. Then I go to the
grabber interface and, sure
enough, it is standing ready to
grab. So - I can now do one of
the following:
1. Use the RECORD button:
which generates a series of
numbered files on my hard disk
in an unknown file format (even
the ProGrab software cannot
re-load them). The decoded
animation is blank (completely
black) and when saved to disk
using the SAVE ANIM option
the resulting files are full of
garbage (and often software
like Viewtek refuses to play
them). The anim file is usually
surprisingly short, suggesting to
me that it may be incomplete.
2. Click on the preview window: in
which case 19 or so numbered
files are written to the disk (as
above). This happens despite the
fact that I asked for more than 19
frames. The frames do appear to
have stuff in them when decoded,
but once again the SAVE ANIM
option produces a garbage/
unusable/incomplete(?) file. (Oh,
by the way, the hard drive isn't
anywhere near full after the grab
and save is finished!)
The strange thing is that when
grabbing animations to RAM it all
works fine. The animation (black
and white or colour) is grabbed
and decoded correctly, and the
resulting Anim file is fine.
My only suggestions could be
that faster hardware is needed
(i.e. faster CPU, RAM or HD), or
that the software is incomplete
and that this feature simply does
not work! However, the ProGrab
advertisement and documentation
do not comment on either of
these things!
If you could help me out I
would be very grateful. If not, do
you know an address to which I
can write (or E-mail)? The only
details I have are for the mail-
order hotline. I've also tried
Gordon Harwoods ProGrab 24RT Plus digitiser was reviewed in our
September 1995 issue where it was awarded 95 per cent!
asking for advice in UseNet Amiga
newsgroups, but to no avail.
Simon Morris
Liverpool via E-mail
fish@cscliv.acuk
Since you say that grabbing to
RAM works fine there's obviously
no problem with your ProGrab
Plus functioning correctly (at
least as a video grabber). On the
other hand, it may be that there is
a problem with the way that your
hard drive is set up. Perhaps your
MaxTransfer value needs
changing to enable the data to
be written correctly to the drive.
My advice would be to call
Harwoods (makers of the
ProGrab) on « 01773 836781,
explain your problem and ask for
technical help. OK, it's the sales
hotline, but I'm sure that they
could be persuaded to pass you
on to someone more
knowledgeable, or at least give
you another number to call for
technical support. After all, if
there's a problem with a piece of
their kit, there should be some
way to contact them to try and
find a solution! Gary
disklont library used to be stored on the Amiga
Fonts disk and, presumably, your hard disk
installation didn't install this library in the libs:
drawer lor you.
II this is the case, the missing library
problem is easy to fix. Insert your Amiga fonts
disk, double click on it, and then select the
'show all files ' option from the Workbench
menu. This enables you to see files and
drawers even if they do not have icons. Look
through the drawers and files present and
locate the file called disklont.library (if this file
is not on the Amiga fonts disk, rest assured that
you will lind it on one of the other Amiga
system disks).
Having located the disklont.library file,
double click on your Workbench icon and use
the 'show all files' menu option again in order
to display the normally-hidden Workbench
drawers. You will see a drawer called libs.
Intellifont Is the new version of the Amiga
outline font utility.
54 Amiga answers
Double click on it to open its window and then,
if necessary, rearrange the positions and/or
sizes of the libs window and the one containing
the diskfont.library so that you can see both
windows at the same time.
Now, use your mouse to move the
Workbench pointer to the disklont.library file
and press and hold down the left mouse
button. If you keep the left mouse button
depressed, you'll find that you can drag the file
over to the libs window. If you do this and
release the left mouse button the disklont
library will be copied to your hard disk's libs
directory and your missing library errors
should stop. Paul
Gadtools buttons
I have a question regarding C,
Intuition and Gadtools and,
because you are the only real
technical Amiga mag, I thought
you might be able to help me out.
I'm writing a program that, as part of its user
interface, needs a pop-up gadget similar to the
ones found on the Mac. I know I could simply
use a cycle gadget and cycle to menu, but I
don't like the way C2M works.
I've already written the code that pops the
gadget on to the screen, waits for the user to
select an option, and then returns the selection
back to the main loop. The routine doesn't use
BOOPSI because I don't understand it yet.
Instead, I coded the gadget myself and use
May 1996
mouse co-ordinates to find out where the user is
within the gadget. However, after a user selects
an option, I want to change the name of the
button gadget (this is a standard Gadtools
BUTTON_KIND gadget), to reflect the selection
that the user has just made.
I tried removing the gadget in question and
changing the ng.ng_GadgetText pointer to the
new string, adding the gadget back again and
refreshing the gadget list, but to no avail. I also
tried changing both the ng.ng_GadgetText and
the Gadget->GadgetText->IText pointers, but
the gadget still keeps the same name as when it
was originally created.
So, where does Gadtools keep the pointer
to the string of the Gadgets text?
Matt Corner
Radford, Coventry
/ have no idea, but I do know that it isn't in the
gadget's intuitext IText field. The button gadget
text pointer, and most other Gadtool gadget
structure fields, are private to Gadtools and as
such are not published. They shouldn 't be
altered either, because these internal field
arrangements could change with subsequent
OS releases.
As you've probably realised, there are no
tags to dynamically alter Gadtool's button text
via the GT_SetGadgetAttrs() function, but there
is however, still a way to do what you want. You
will need to remove the gadget from the list,
free it so that Gadtools releases whatever
associated resources it was using, alter the text
Issue 62
David Taylor
Q&A
ShopperAnswers
in the NewGadget structure, and then make
another call to the Gadtool CreateGadgetQ
lunction to produce the new gadget.
You will, ol course, have to clear the
NextGadget field ol the gadget you remove,
otherwise the FreeGadgetsO call will remove
the gadget nodes further down the list.
Because of this the gadget removal fragment
will actually end up looking like this:
RemoveGadget (window_p, gadget_p) ;
gadget_p->NextGadget=NULLr
FreeGadgets (gadget_pl ;
Once the gadget has been dismantled in this
way you can modify the text in your
NewGadget structure and create a new gadget
using this sort of code:
newgadget.ngJtedgetText="SOMENEWTEXT";
previous_gadget_p=CreateGadget (BUTTON_KIND,
last_gadget_p, Sng , TAG_END) ;
Having done that, you will then need to use the
RefreshGadgetsO function [or RefreshGListO if
you like], followed by a call to the Gadtools
GT_RefreshWindow() function:
RefreshGadgets(gadgetlist.j) 1 window_p,NULL) ;
GTJ?efreshWindow(window_p,NULL) ;
77>/s will update your gadget display and give
you your new button gadget text label! Paul
Modifying a Startup
Sequence
When I use my A2000
(Workbench revision 27.75,
Kickstart 2.1) for rendering,
multitasking or any memory-
intensive application, I like to keep
memory overheads as low as possible and so
use a StartUp with the bare minimum, i.e. Mill,
ASSIGNWEDGE, ARQ and FASTMEMFIRST
only. When, on the other hand, I wish to do my
'housekeeping', for which I use DOpus4, I would
like to switch in other utilities like Blanker. Is it
possible to add a branch somewhere in the
User-StartUp to query current requirements on
boot up, and if so how?
Simon Smalley
Devonport, Plymouth
You're running Release 2 of the Operating
System, so if you look at the main StartUp-
Sequence file in the s: directory, you'll see,
towards the end of the script, some lines that
read like this:
IF EXISTS s:User-Startup
execute S: User-Startup
EndlF
In other words, the commands in your User-
StartUp file are being performed near the end
of the main StartUp- Sequence via the
AmigaDOS Execute command. You can easily
alter the appropriate StartUp- Sequence lines to
execute any number of separate User-StartUp
scripts if you wish.
For your purposes all you need is a couple
Issue 62
of independent script files. Let us suppose you
create two different User-StartUp script files
called User-StartUpl and User-StartUp2. To
get either, or both, of these files executed at
boot up time just use ED (or some other text
file editor) to alter the StartUp-Sequence
fragment that I mentioned above. Change it so
that it uses this sort of conditional test scheme:
IF EXISTS sJJser-Startupl
ASK "Run User-Startupl |Y/N)?"
IF WARN
execute 5: User-Startupl
EndlF
EndlF
IF EXISTS s_User-Startup2
ASH "Run User-Startup2 (Y/N)?"
IF WARN
execute s:User-Startup2
EndlF
EndlF
When you next boot your machine the two
prompt lines will appear in turn asking you
whether you want to run, or not run each
particular script. Just enter Y or N accordingly
and you'll get only the User-StartUp(s) that
you choose! Paul
HiSoft BASIC 2 snag
Help! I think I have found a
'genuine problem'. I'm grappling
with HiSoft BASIC 2 and have
been playing around with the
Intuitext example on the Work disk.
There is a line in the listing (line 51) that calls a
subroutine called InitlntuiTextO- 1 was sure that
if I changed the drawmode being used, from
JAM2& to INVERSVID&, the text would be
printed in inverse mode but for some reason
this doesn't happen.
I rang HiSoft, but although they managed
to reproduce the problem, they couldn't
figure out how to fix it and suggested I hit the
RKM manuals. I am desperate - upon more
playing around it seems that the pens cannot
be set properly!
David Storey
Horsham, West Sussex
I've taken a look at the HiSoft example you
mention and you are right - the lines that do
the IntuiText printing stuff, namely:
InitlntuiText myltext{),mytextpen,mybackpen,
JAM2S, 0, 0, textattr , "hello there" ,
Printltext
PEEKLIwinS.rportl ,VARPTR(myitext (0) ) , 50, 50
...aren't working properly. By replacing JAM2&
with INVERSVID& you would expect the text to
show in inverse characters and it doesn't.
The reason lies in an error in the
InitlntuiTextO subroutine which I've reproduced
in listing 1 so that other readers can see the
sort of code that you are talking about. The
suspect line is the one that pokes a drawmode
value into the IntuiText structure:
POKEW tfi+IntuiTextDrawMode, drawmode
May 1996
The IntuiText DrawMode structure field is byte
sized, not word sized, so the routine should be
poking an 8-bit value into the structure, not a
1 6-bit value.
Listing 2 shows the change needed to get
the routine working and you'll find that with this
alteration in place your inverse text will appear
when you use the INVERSVID& flag in the
subroutine call.
SUB InitlntuiText (T(l), BYVAL frontpen, BYVAL
backpen, BYVAL drawmode,
BYVAL leftedge, BYVAL topedge, font (11,
textstringS, BYVAL nextptrS} STATIC ts
tS=VARPTR(t(0)|
POKEB ti, frontpen
POKEB tS+IntuiTextBackPen, backpen
POKEW t&*IntuiTextDrawMode, drawmode
< THIS IS WRONG!
POKEW titlntuiTextLef tEdge, leftedge
POKEW tS-tlntuiTextTopEdge, topedge
POKEL tStlTextFont, VARPTR ( f ont ( ) )
POKEL tStlText, SADD(textstring$+CHRS{0) )
POKEL tS+NextText, nextptrS
END SUB
Listing 1:
The original InitlntuiTextO routine.
SUB InitlntuiText (T(l), BYVAL frontpen, BYVAL
backpen, BYVAL drawmode,
BYVAL leftedge, BYVAL topedge, font(l),
textstringS, BYVAL nextptrt)
STATIC tS
FAQ
The best way to grab
I need to get some 10x8-inch
colour photographs into my
Amiga (A3000, 6Mb RAM, HD).
Which is the best approach -
video grabber, hand scanner
or flatbed scanner? I already
have an S-VHS camcorder, so would a video
grabber be the way to go?
The answer to this dilemma is mainly
dictated by how much you can afford to
spend, since in this case money is directly
related to quality. Flatbed scanners give
the best result, because they provide far
more resolution than all but the very best,
broadcast quality cameras. Although video
grabbers are more flexible, since they can
usually capture stills or moving sequences
from camera or tape, the overall quality will
generally be noticeably worse than your
average flatbed scanner. Hand scanners
don't do such a bad job, but because of the
limited size of their scanning head and the
fact that they are manually controlled,
you'll probably find it difficult to make the
several passes required to scan all of your
photograph and then accurately join the
strips together into a finished image. So
the best solution is to plump for a good
quality flatbed scanner.
Take note, however, that 6Mb of
memory may not be enough, especially If
you want to post-process your images with
a 24-bit paint program or image processing
software such as Art Department, since
high resolution scans can gobble up
memory. Think about adding at least 4Mb
of extra RAM. Gary
Amiga answers 55
Shop per Answers
Q&A
David Taylor
'i'Vvvr;
ZEE
SCSI Iddms I, IIK I ( V |
I = B pvtitiM §§■= (orriQt pirtiliin '•••
Sin:
nan
Mill Piflihul Hm fifliln»| tilull Stl»[ Help
IHviiKrt Options _/J
il»l tvl: |i I
ted cm im~~i
Pirtitin Ptfitf Niw
■Kl 1
[Mini Fill hslw
(to!...
!.I,U,U[WZ1" M,I,: III ,M ""«-J ,„(„, |
Mlm: |W I lul Priwilr: I— I ' C»ctl |
Make sure that the drive is not selected as
bootable; this stops the DH5: icon from
appearing on Workbench.
C6=VARPTR(t(0l)
K)KEB t&, frontpen
FOKEB CStlncuiTexcBackPen.backpen
POKEB CS*InCuiTextDra«Mode,drawmode <— CHANGE
HEEDED
TOKEW tS+IntuiTextLeEtEdge,leftedge
POKEW tS+IntuiTextTopEdge, topedge
FOKEL tS+ITextFont, VARFTRIfontlOl)
FOKEL tfctlText, SADD(textstring$4CHRS(0)l
POKEL t&tNextTexr. , nextptrs
END SUB
Listing 2:
The modified InitlntuiTextO routine. Paul
A happy genlock
owner
This response is intended to offer
a little help and advice to Nick
Grundy ("More genlock thoughts",
AS59), with regard to his genlock
difficulties. I now have an A1 200,
along with an Archos Overdrive (540Mb), Turbo
2Mb memory expansion, a Rombo digitiser and
a Rendale 8802 genlock.
After using the genlock for three years,
initially with an A600, I experienced a
compatibility problem with a recently-purchased
monitor and the through port on the genlock.
I called Rendale in Northampton, who dealt
with my enquiry over the telephone almost
instantly, very professionally and, even more
rarely in these times, knowledgeably. What's
more, the answers they gave were in terms
which even I could understand - not in some
jargon-laden, technical gobbledygook.
The outcome was that I took my genlock to
Rendale's workshop, where the necessary
upgrade was undertaken with the same
courteous attitude.
My findings convinced me that if I ever
needed to upgrade my genlock, and if Rendale
made it, then I would probably buy from them.
Their aftercare is not only second to none but
also vastly in advance of my general experience
of dealing with other suppliers.
I must emphasise that my only
connection with Rendale is that of a highly-
impressed customer who owns a three-year-old
8802 genlock.
John W. Hateley
Dunstable, Bedsfordshire
/ am glad that someone has been getting some
satisfaction from their genlock, and good
service from their supplier too. Wouldn't it be
56 Amiga answers
iyW.^- :--: '~
Filtrl*t:
dnvf d'hint'ons
Hirnif aetur-rs Hmf.
SHUSH
Prive Nine:
C-riv* ItgitiDti:
l?.l
Rfid (oaf (writ ion [
CrUnVi: [IWi I
KHfls: fTC St»: 177SNK OH (In.
i«b m CflWr: rjn^ Plr , h- u|m Mm ,„ mr-|
Itdutd Urttf (nrrfltl
Cylinder: [IHr"|
Urtte Frump
(lliidtr: rwr~i
Supports reflection .yj
Use the "change drive type" screen to read
the configuration for blocks per track and
heads/surfaces.
nice ii every Amiga supplier could be
recommended so highly? Gary
PC Format
I am using PCTask (v2) on my
Amiga as a way of linking my
il^l ~J Psion 3 palmtop. I have
successfully created a hard disk
partition (DH5:) for PCTask to use
as drive C: and installed MSDOS6 on it. The
link software works fine but the icon name on
the Workbench screen turned from DH5: to
DH5:+ garbage characters.
I am now trying to set up a CrossDOS
device so that AmigaDOS can also access the
partition and hence the files from the Psion.
Following the instructions supplied with PCTask
and using the information supplied by PCTask
and Syslnfo, I have created a DOSDriver file
called PH0:.
This seems to mount OK, but I cannot
access PH0: because I keep getting system
error requestors informing me that this is not a
DOS device. What am I doing wrong?
Niall Hallett
Slough, Berkshire
It's fun playing with multiple filesystems on the
same hard drive isn't it? The garbage after the
name is understandable, because the Amiga
really doesn 't know what to make of the HD5:
partition. It has no way of reading it at all, and
merely tolerates it.
My system also has PCTask on it set up to
use a partition of a hard drive as drive C: - it's
the only sensible way to use PCTask, in my
opinion. You can see from the shot of
HDToolbox (see pic above left) that I make
sure that the drive is not selected as bootable.
This seems to keep the DH5: icon from ever
appearing on the Workbench.
--.-"- :;".., ";., ; i=|=
SWBfTJin5^S"jlHHMHr^^^P
-"
tai jai jai ^ai i3 !
JSi J=al aal aal aa|
M3L ££L j£& aal ^^
aal ^P jal &A
As you can see, the PCTask hard drive is now
readable from AmigaDOS.
May 1996
Now lor the other problem. I use a similar
Seagate hard drive (an ST3 1 45A), and have
discovered that Syslnfo can get a lot of the
drive geometry values wrong. Always use the
HDToolBox program to get the start and low
cylinder values, and then use the "change drive
type" screen to read the configuration for blocks
per track and heads/surfaces.
Use these in your mountlist and try again.
This is exactly what I did five minutes ago and
as you can see, my PCTask hard drive is now
readable from AmigaDOS. (See pics.)
Here are some tips:
• Check you have the CrossDOSFileSystem
installed properly and that you can read and
write to PC format floppies.
• Check with HDToolBox (not Syslnfo) that
you have the right drive settings in your special
PCTask mountlist.
• Try a different name: sometimes if the drive
name ends in a number other than a letter such
a "C" there are problems. My drive is called
PPC: as far as the Amiga is concerned.
• Make sure that you are using two different
names: my drive partition is called HDPC0: but
the AmigaDOS mountlist is called PPC:.
• Quoting from the manual: if the parameters
given lor Heads times BlocksPerTrack do not
equal BlocksPerCylinder, assume the Heads
value is one and the BlocksPerTrack is the
same as BlocksPerCylinder.
If you still can 't get the drive to mount,
the only thing I can suggest is an upgrade
to version 3, because that is the version of
PCTask I am using. John
It's all Greek to me
Hello to all Amiganautsl Today
(7th February 1 996) a purchase
which I had made from England
arrived - my new ProGrab 24 with
the PCMCIA interface to go with
my Amiga 1200.
The problem is that I don't know what kind
of cable I need to connect my video (which is
VHS, not S-VHS, but I don't think this really
matters), or to my 14-inch PAL Sony TV with
SCART output, or my 8mm camcorder, to the
ProGrab's input.
I have tried it with a cable which I had
been using for copying video tapes from one
video to another by connecting the source
video and audio outputs to the recorder video
and audio inputs.
I used the same cable with the digitiser by
connecting one end of the cable to the video
out and the other end to the digitiser, but the
software tells me that there is No Video Signal.
What is happening? Am I using the wrong
cable? Am I connecting the cable to the wrong
input of the digitiser (it has two and I don't really
know which I should be using).
I also bought a SCART cable which I
connected from my Sony TV to my digitiser (to
the same input as I tried above), but the
software still tells me that there's no video
signal present. I have tried connecting the
digitiser to both the parallel and PCMCIA
sockets on my Amiga, but I still get the same
Issue 62
David Taylor
Q&A
ShopperAnswers
results - that is, nothing! I intend to use my
Amiga with a Blizzard 1 230IV (8Mb RAM)
professionally for graphics.
Menis Malaxianakis
Greece
The most likely cause ol your problem, since
you do not say which video connector you
are using to output the signal from your
camcorder, VCR or TV, is that you are
attempting to use an RF signal (the one that
comes either out ol your VCR or camcorder's
aerial-type socket), with your ProGrab. This will
not work, since it isn't the kind ol video signal
the ProGrab is expecting.
What you need to use is either a composite
video signal (aka CVBS or FBAS in certain
parts ol Europe) connected to the Phono
socket on the ProGrab, or an S-VHS one
(using a special S-VHS cable to connect Irom
your camcorder's S-VHS output) connected to
the ProGrab's S-VHS (lour-hole) socket. Note
that it is unlikely that your TV will have a video
output at all, unless it is a professional-style
monitor, rather than TV.
I would advise you to buy an S-VHS cable
(il you haven't already got one) and connect
one end to your camcorder's output and the
other to the ProGrab's S-VHS input
Make sure the camera is running, with the
lens cap oil, or with a tape playing back, il you
want to test the ProGrab. Check that you can
see an image in the camera's viewfinder, then
try to grab it using your ProGrab. The software
will automatically sense which input the video
RTTY? No problem
Regarding the query from
Monsieur Breut (AS60) and
the reception of RTTY
transmissions. One can
certainly use the Amiga for
General RTTY | t requires a TNC
(Terminal Node Controller) and one firm In
England who specialises in digital
transmission and reception equipment is
Sistim Electronics Ltd, Unit 1 A. Hampton
Lane, Blackfield, Southampton S045 1WE.
I hope this is of some help.
Reg Holland
Our readers come to the rescue again!
Many thanks for helping us out! John
signal is connected to, so there s no need lor
you to change any sottware settings here.
II this doesn't work, try connecting a
composite output Irom your VCR to the
ProGrab's phono socket (the one with just one
hole in it). You may either need a SCART to
phono cable, or some other cable depending
on the video (not RF) output Irom your VCR.
II both the above suggestions fail to work,
see if you can find a friend with an Amiga
1200 and try the ProGrab on their machine,
just in case there is actually a hardware
problem with your Amiga itself.
If none ol my suggestions work (and they
should, if all the hardware is working correctly),
check your cables again, and, il they are OK,
you might well find that you have a faulty
ProGrab, which you will need to return to your
supplier for replacement.
If you need to contact Gordon Harwoods
(makers of the ProGrab) for more assistance
you can E-mail them at gharwood@eworld.com.
Good luck! Gary
The sample facts
I am looking at recording samples
into my A1 200 from a tape
\ ~\J^~J recorder and direct from a "line
^\ J y out" on an amplifier. I am using
Technosound Turbo 2. 1 noticed
that my computer hasn't got an audio input.
Do I need to buy some hardware? Is it possible
to do what I want it to do, and if so how and
what do I need?
Divo (an enthusiastic beginner)
First the good news: yes it is entirely possible
to achieve what you want to do with your
A 1 200. Unfortunately, as you noticed, the
Amiga doesn't have any "audio in" facilities as
standard. You will need to buy a sampling
cartridge which costs about £20.
It wasn't so long ago that everybody was
advertising samplers, but at the moment they
are surprisingly difficult to find. In lad, Datel
(■b 01782 744707) are the only company I
know about. However, many dealers may still
have some buried in a store room somewhere,
so it's worth asking. Alternatively, ask around
for a secondhand unit or look up Aminet where
there are plans for DIY versions. John ■
Fill in and get answers to your questions
AS62
If you send in a question for the Amiga Answers experts, please fill
in and include the form below (or a photocopy if you don't want to
cut up your magazine). If you have several questions in different
fields that should be addressed to more than one of our experts,
please send in your queries on separate forms.
Send your form and question to: Amiga Answers, Amiga
Shopper, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, Avon BA1 2BW.
Name: .
Agnus chip (if known)
Extra drive #1 (3.5in/5.25in) as DF : Manufacturer .
Extra drive #2 (3.5in/5.25in) as DF : Manufacturer .
Hard disk: Mb as DH
Manufacturer
Extra RAM fitted - type, size in Mb and manufacturer
Address:
Please indicate details of any other hardware which could help us
to answer your question:
Your machine:
A500
H A1200
3 A4000
Approximate age of machine:
Post code
D A500 Plus
□ A1500
A600
□ A2000
A1000
LJ A3000
Kickstart version (displayed at the "insert Workbench" prompt)
Dl.2 Dl.3 Dj.x D3.x
Workbench revision (written on the Workbench disk)
Hl.2 1.3 I 1.3.2 1 2.04/2.05
□ 2.1 D3.0
PCB revision (if known). Do not take your machine apart just to
look for this!
Total memory fitted (see AVAIL in Shell for Workbench 1.3)
Chip memory available (see AVAIL in Shell)
Now, use this space to describe your problem, including as much
relevant information as possible. Please continue on a separate
sheet if necessary.
Issue 62
May 1996
Amiga answers 57
Shoppe rTutorial
Programming
Paul Overaa
HiSoft
BASIC2
In the second part of his
HiSoft BASIC 2 tutorial
Paul Overaa explains the
use of tag lists.
Last month's installment should
have convinced you that the
mechanics of using Amiga
library functions from HiSoft
BASIC 2 are not particularly
difficult. Before we can discuss gadget use
and event handling, however, there is one
subject that needs to be put to rest. It
concerns the way parameters are passed
to some library functions.
In order to provide the enhancements thai
arrived with OS Release 2, the functions used
to perform many established operations, like
window opening, needed additional parameters
to be specified. One possibility, namely the
extending of many existing system structures,
would have been an easy solution; but the
next time OS enhancements were made the
same problem would arise. Some structures
would doubtless need to be modified again. In
the end, Commodore wisely opted for a more
long-term solution based on the use of arrays
that contain self-identifying parameter values.
Since these lists provide a way of tagging
additional parameters on to existing OS
structures, they were called tag lists.
Tag lists
Tag list entries consist of a pair of long word (i.e.
four byte) values. The first long word provides a
32-bit identity field, the second a corresponding
32-bit data value. Most tag identities are library
specific and their definitions tend to be found in
the .be constants files of the appropriate library.
For example, one asl library tag is called
ASLFR_TitleText&, and this enables you to
specify the title text that is used when an asl file
requester appears.
A few general tag item values have also
been defined and can be found in the utility.be
file. There's only one you need to worry about
and that's a tag called TAG_END& - this
signals the end of an array and needs to be
placed at the end of any tag list you prepare. To
use this definition you need to include the
utility.be constants file (or the utility.bh header
file which, as explained last month, would bring
in the constants file automatically). If you look in
the HiSoft utility.be file you will see that this has
a value of zero; programmers often terminate tag
lists with an explicit 0& to avoid having to
include the utility.be or .utility.bh files.
58 Amiga shopper
The best way to come to terms with tag lists
is to see them being used and, in preparation
for this month's discussions, I made use of one
tag list-based function call in the second
(test2.bas) example of the last tutorial. Now it's
time to both explain in detail what was going on
and extend the ideas a little bit.
If you look back at the code you will see that
asl requester use followed this type of scenario.
First an AllocAslRequest&() function call was
used to allocate the main data structure for the
requester. The program was then able to bring
up the requester by calling an AslRequest&()
function as many times as was necessary, and
this function was tied to a 'Load File' menu
option. Before the program terminated a
FreeAslRequest() function was used to hand
back all the resources allocated by the original
AllocAslRequest&() call. The original call to
allocate the file requester structure looked like:
g_£ile_reguest_p4=AllocAslRequestS(ASL_FileRequesC
&,VARPTR(requeseer_tags&K)) ) )
The more adventurous of you will have noted
from the function box outs provided that the
second parameter was a pointer to a tag list.
The easiest way to prepare a tag list
with HiSoft BASIC 2 is first to use a DIM
statement to allocate a long word array. I
arbitrarily set up space for six pairs of tags by
using this statement:
DIM requester_tagsS,(12)
May 1996
To get a set of tag entries into this array,
HiSoft BASIC 2 provides a TAGLIST instruction.
This requires a pointer to the array that is
used to hold the tag list along with the tag
pairs themselves.
The address of the array can be obtained
using BASIC'S VARPTRO function on the first
element of the array, VARPrRlrequesr.er_tagsMOII,
in the above example.
The pair of tag items used last month
consisted of a ASLFR_TitleText& tag identity and
an "Amiga Shopper Requester" text string. With
the TAG_END& label being used to terminate
the entries, tag list creation looked like this:
TAGLIST VARETR(requester_tagss(0)), _
ASLFRjritleTextfi, "Amiga Shopper Requester", _
TAGJENK
Notice how HiSoft BASIC'S underscore '_'
continuation character at the end of each line
enables the various sections of this statement to
be written on separate lines. This is important
since it helps keep longer tag lists readable.
If this is the first time you have come across
these ideas, you might think that fiddling around
building tag lists is a pain. But you must
persevere with it. Tag lists have been adopted to
solve the problem of adding additional
parameters to function calls once and for all;
from Release 2 onwards they have become an
integral part of the Amiga's programming
environment. If you are interested in getting into
up-to-date Amiga programming you MUST
understand how they work!
Now the good news
First, once you know how to build one tag list;
you will be able to build ANY tag list. Second,
Issue 62
Paul Overaa
Programming
ShopperTlitorial
once you are using a tag list-based function call
you can make many changes simply by
modifying the tag entries. Let me convince you
that this is true by explaining about some of the
tags available in the HiSoft asl.bc file.
For example, the tags ASLFRjnitialLeftEdges,
ASLFR_InitialTopEdgeS, ASLPR_Init.ialWidc.hS and
ASLFR_InitialHeights enable you to specify the
position and size of the asl file requester
window. ASLFR_DrawersOnly& is another useful tag.
Setting this tag to trues causes the file
requester to have no file gadget and to display
only directory names in the file list. You can use
this tag if you want to have the user select a
destination directory for a particular task.
Another useful item is the ASLFR_Rejectlcons&
tag. When this is set to :rjes, this tag prevents
.info files (icons) from being displayed in the
requester. You should use this tag in all your
software because Workbench users should
never have to see .info files.
Suppose that we wanted to make an asl file
requester appear at top left screen location
(50,50), be 400 pixels wide, and have a height
of 200 pixels. We would set up these tags:
ASLFR_InitialLe£tEdge&, 50&
ASLFR_InitialTopEdgeS. 50S
ASLFR_InitialWidth&, 400&
ASLFR_InitialHeight&, 2004
In other words the TAGLIST statement needed
would look something like this:
TAGLIST VARPTR(requester_tagsS(0)), _
ASLFRJTitleTextS, "Amiga Shopper
Requester", _
ASLFR_InitialLe£tEdgei, SOS,
ASLFR_InitialTopEdgeS, 50&, _
ASLFRJnitialWidthS, 400&, _
ASLFRJnitialHeightS, 200S, _
TAG_ENDS
In practice, it's not always advisable to throw
loads of 'magic numbers' into your code - it is
better to define constant values near the start of
the program. If, for instance, the file requester
was to be the same size as the window being
used we could define these constants:
CONST W_X&=50
CONST W_YS=50
CONST W_WIDTHS=400
CONST W HEIGHTS=200
A word of warniru
One of the reasons that BASIC coding is great
fun is that you can use variables without
declaring or initialising them. Past that stage?
Well, most people think that but don't you
believe it - everyone inadvertently does it
occasionally simply by making the odd typing
slip. With tag lists this is fatal; let me explain
why by looking at this tag entry:
ASLFR_InitalLeftEdge&, W_X6
What's the problem? It doesn't work because
there is an 'i' missing in the tag identity name.
We should have written:
ASLFR_ImtialLeftEdge&, W_XS
OK, so it's an easy mistake to make when
typing tag identities and an easy mistake to
miss as well. The interesting thing is that when
a tag list containing a misspelt identity is used
it, and all subsequent tags in the list, stop
working. What happens of course is that
BASIC regards the identity item as a variable
and then initialises it to zero (in true BASIC
fashion). Now you ought to know what
happens next - the library function using the
tag list encounters this zero identity value
and interprets the entry as the end of the
list. All subsequent tag pairs therefore get
ignored. I've mentioned this because if you
find tag entries don't seem to be having
any effect during your HiSoft BASIC 2 tag
list experiments, look very carefully at the
entries you prepared to make sure you
haven't slipped up.
Both WINDOW OPEN and TAGLIST
statements could then use these symbolic
values. For instance:
TAGLIST VARPTR(requester_tagsS:(0) I, _
ASLPRJTitleTexti, "Amiga
Shopper Requester", _
ASLFR_InitialLe£tEdge&, W_XS,
ASLFR_InitiaITopEdge6, W_YS, _
ASLFRJnitialWidthS, W_WIDTH6, _
ASLFRJnitialHeighti, W_HEIGHTS, _
TAG_ENM
I have done this with the first example on this
month's Coverdisk (test3.bas). (See page 1 2 for
details of the disks.)
The code is based on the test2.bas example
from last month and the significant point to bear
in mind is that the only real changes that have
had to be made is the inclusion of the additional
tags shown above.
J
n^_JJUom )«t— 7
Mimi " K.iv ...»
(■•ll.k» •••14. b»
p_*jj £_ai
Mar* ■•■•rn«
Above: The new menu options used in the
test4.bas example program.
A second example
A file requester's initial position and size
characteristics are normally specified just once
when the AllocAslRequest&() function is used.
However, the AslRequest&O function used to
bring up the requester can also accept tag
parameters (see last month's tutorial for
function details).
For the second example I have tied
AslRequest&() calls to separate menu items and
incorporated additional tag lists that make use
of the ASPR_Rejectlconss tag. In one case the tag
value supplied is falses (so .info files are not
shown), and in the other case the same tag is
set to trues so that .info files are displayed
(you'll find this example code on disk as the
program test4.bas). For the extra tag data I've
specified an array using dim extra_tagss(4); but
instead of initialising this array at the start of the
program, it is done within the case statements
which handle the menu operations.
Make the most of the fact that much of the
code will be familiar from last month's tutorial
and concentrate on the small changes
associated with this month's tag list
discussions. From now on I will assume that you
understand the use of tag lists. Both of the
examples on the disk, incidentally, are again
using HiSoft BASIC'S conventional high-level
menu/close-gadget event handling.
Unfortunately, this approach has inherent
limitations and so next month I will explain what
they are and how to avoid them. ■
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modified case
statements
code from
the test4.bas
Right: Don't
forget to set
appropriate
include and
library paths
before compiling
the examples.
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Issue 62
May 1996
Amiga shopper 59
Shoppe r"ftitorial
Music
John Kennedy
AmigamUSIC
In part three of our music tutorial, John Kennedy discusses the
power of sound sampling on the Amiga.
it
Sampling is so
popular because
it is so powerful."
IThis is the original waveform. It varies
smoothly with no steps. This is the
waveform we will sample.
Sound on the Amiga is produced
using sound samples: real
sounds replayed at different
pitches. Samples are extremely
useful throughout modern
music, because they are extremely flexible.
On the one hand, samples form the
basic building-block of almost all modern
synthesizers, which use a "wave table" of
sampled sounds and then process them to
create realistic sounds. On the other hand,
dedicated samples can store drum kits, vocals
and media snatches, and replay them exactly
like the original, or processed in some way.
Samplers are also used as digital tape
r \A
2 With only three sampling levels, the
resultant sample (the green shape) is pretty
rough. The sampling level is high (the markers
on the horizontal access), but there isn't enough
resolution to capture the waveform properly.
recorders: capturing sounds to hard disk for
editing, processing and mastering.
Sampling is so popular because it is so
powerful. Converting an analogue sound source
into digital data means it can be processed,
stored and replayed with excellent quality. The
music stored on a CD is digital, and it sounds
much better than analogue vinyl records or
analogue compact cassettes ever do.
The process of converting the sound into
digital format (which is often called "sampling"
or "digitising") and vice versa is carried out by
electronic chips. There are two quantities
which determine the quality of an audio
sample. The first is the sample rate, the second
is the resolution.
Quality of sound
Taking the resolution first, it soon becomes
obvious that the more detail you use to store the
sample, the better it will sound. You can see this
if I quickly change into some flared trousers, put
on a kipper tie, grow a strange beard and adopt
my best Open University lecturer-type voice.
(See pics 1 to 4.)
You can see that the resolution is important,
and that's why CD players have 1 6 bits of
resolution: that's up to 65,536 different levels to
measure the sample. The Amiga has 8-bit
resolution, but even that means 256 levels, so
the sound quality is pretty good.
Making the most of Amiga sampling
The Amiga's built-in sampling
hardware may be only four
channels with a resolution of eight
bits, but it stills sounds excellent.
In fact, it can occasionally sound
better than cheap, 16-bit
soundcards used on PCs.
However, there still comes
a time when the quality simply
isn't enough. Sadly, it isn't
possible to unplug the Amiga's
sound hardware and slot in a
new card. The Amiga just doesn't
work like that.
Do you really need sampling?
If you only need high quality
instruments, it is possible to
buy an external MIDI synthesizer
for a lot less than an external
MIDI sampler.
Will you be using sampling
mostly for "media snatches"?
If you plan on using the sample
replay function for short bursts
of voice from films and so on
(ahem, cough, cough, copyright),
then you probably don't actually
need 16-bit stereo sampling. If you
sample from radio or non-NICAM
TV then the Amiga's eight bits will
do very well indeed. You can
process the samples for echo,
phasing and filter effects with a
sample editing program and then
play them back for very expensive-
sounding results.
Do you need many samples
replayed at once?
Dedicated MIDI samplers can
replay many samples at the same
time. For example, the EMU ESi32
which we use can replay 32
samples at the one time - this
makes the Amiga looks decidedly
weedy. There are ways around
this, though. The easiest way is to
fabricate the samples yourself: if
you are always (or mostly) going
to be playing certain samples at
the same time, create a new
sample from the two originals by
using the "MIX" feature of any
sample editing program. Another
solution is to use another Amiga -
you can pick up a used A500 very
cheaply these days, and hey
presto! another four voices.
Will you be using sampled
drums?
With a dedicated sampler, you can
keep an entire drum kit in memory
at one time and trigger each
sound individually. This is a
tremendous luxury, but you will
rarely have the same capability on
the Amiga. One way around this is
not to sample drums individually,
but sample entire drum riffs: the
kick, snare hi-hats and everything.
Sample the entire riff and trigger
it at the start of every bar or four
bars. This is a great way to create
Jungle music!
60 Amiga shopper
I May 1996
Issue 62
John Kennedy
Music
Shopperiutonal
Why sample rates are important
!
It is Important to pick a sample rate which is fast enough to capture all
the detail in a sound. The sample rate of choice is defined by the
"Shannon-Hartley Sampling Thereom" as twice the highest frequency in
the sound. This is also known as the Niquest Rate. If you sample at less
than this rate, detail will be lost as you can see from this example below.
Sfep 1: Here is the original audio
1
Step 2: Now we digitise it at a
1
signal. It's not digitised yet, so like
/
sampling rate defined by the marks
A A
any analogue signal, it varies over
/
/\ /
along the horizontal axis. For each
/\ /
time: there are no steps. It's the
/
/\ \ /
marker, we put a dot at the closest
/
l\ \ * /
sort of signal you would see if you
/
\l v\ /
point to the original signal. We
/
\J V\ /
connected a microphone to an
/
/ V
can only space the dots
1
/ V
oscilloscope and matched the
/
r 7 V
horizontally at the rate of the
/
/ V
waveform bounce up and down.
/
markers on the axis. (We are not
dealing with resolution here).
/
l l l l l I l l l l l l
Step 3: Now we can remove the
Step 4: To replay the sample, we
original waveform and leave the
re-create the original waveform.
A
samples behind. These are the
t
The only way we can do this is to
l\ /
only pieces of data we store,
•
make use of the samples we have.
^ / \ /
because we know that each
• 1
You can see that at the start of the
/A/ \^ /
sample is a "snapshot" of what
» • 1 1
waveform where there is a lot of
_/ v vw
level the original waveform was
•
movement, our sample rate wasn't
V
at for each point in time (or at
enough to capture all the detail.
least each point in time separated
by the sample rate).
i i i i i
3 Double the resolution and things start to get
better. Only a little, mind you. Deciding
which level to put the green bar to is difficult
when you don't have much to choose from.
Tunes, please
We have explained how a sample can be made
and replayed, but how is it possible to play back
samples at different pitches? It's all very well
sampling a piano playing Middle C, but do you
need to sample all the other notes as well in
order to be able to play a tune?
Thankfully not: the trick is to replay the
Middle C sample at different rates. Play it
slightly faster and it goes up in pitch, play it
slower and it drops in pitch. A single sample
can therefore be made to play an entire tune.
You can see this yourself easily with an Amiga
tracker program such as OctaMED. The Amiga
keyboard is used as a music keyboard, and
depending on which key you press, the sample
is replayed at different rates and therefore
different notes are created.
You might be thinking that since the
samples are played at different rates, the
Issue 62
"A single sample
can therefore be
made to play an
entire tune."
4 With increased resolution the sample starts
to get closer. With a high enough resolution
and a fast enough sample rate, the sample
would look pretty close to the original.
samples would all last different lengths of
time. The higher-pitched samples would
sound for a lot shorter than the lower-pitched
samples. Also, after taking so much time to
get the sampling rate right, won't playing it a
lot slower (to get a deep, low-pitched sound)
effect the quality?
The answer is, of course, yes on both
counts. Higher-pitched samples don't last as
long and very low-pitched samples can sound
rather ropy. A dedicated MIDI sampler gets
Next month
In next month's music tutorial we will look
more in-depth at sample analysis, and
some of the software and hardware tools;
which will help you make the most of them
on your Amiga. Stay tuned!
/lay 1996
around this problem because it can
automatically loop each sample. Every sound
has an attack, a sustain and a decay to a
certain extent. With careful editing you can
loop the sustain and so extend the sound. The
MIDI sampler hardware can keep the loop
happening for as long as the keyboard is
pressed down, which makes a big difference.
(MIDI samplers can do all sorts of other tricks
such as adjusting the amplitude, pan, tuning
and filtering as well - but that's what you pay
your £1,000 plus for).
The best way to get around the sample
length/quality problem is to create multiple
samples. Obviously, it would be best to sample
each note individually: and so have 48 or 49
separate samples for a four octave keyboard. In
practice you can usually get away with one
sample per octave, and use the altered replay
rate trick to create the extra notes. ■
Amiga shopper 61
ShopperTUtorial
Comms
Darren Irvine
features
Darren Irvine takes a closer
look at IRC, and explains some
of its more arcane features.
Last month, we covered the
basic principles behind the
operation of IRC, and looked at
common commands used in
normal IRC operation. In most
situations, those commands will be
enough to see you through, but knowing
the ins and outs of some of the more
obscure features of IRC can be useful.
Creating a channel
When someone first joins a brand new channel,
that person becomes the channel operator or
"chanop" of that channel. This person has the
power to affect the way in which that channel is
perceived by other IRC users, and can also
make other people chanops for that channel.
The command which does most of the work in
terms of changing the status of a channel is the
/MODE command. One of the most significant
things that can be done to a channel is to use
/MODE to make the channel "private", rather
than the default "public" mode. As we've seen,
anyone can see who is on a public channel and
anyone can join that channel. Private channels
on the other hand, can't be joined by just
anyone, and normal users can't obtain
information regarding the people on a private
4tan>
«Chan rtode*
«Hction»
TheK
<Join>
««ctioo»
Users on (Hreland: darsy TheK nstn2695 tippet OUraith BJawJaBot
Ration @Muir_Wolf
End of /NRMES 1 1st .
Current modes for #ireland: topic protection, no messaging.
Halich hugs tippet, doesn't matter, I tike u more
Halich: What do you study?
muggy <guest 138192. 19?. 190. 13> has joined the channel.
darsy Suddenly Makes up
X
|jji|jj| darsy
1
Above: You can use the /ME command to give
some feel of animation to your presence on IRC,
rather than sticking to simply chatting.
channel - use of the /NAMES or the /LIST
command usually returns something like "Prv: *"
when examining a private channel. The format of
the /MODE command is as follows:
/MODE [channel] [+|-][modecontrols]
[parameters]
This looks a bit complex, but it can be broken
down into simple sections.
The channel bit is fairly obviously the name
of the channel which you want to affect with the
/MODE command. Of course, you must have
chanop status for that channel for the command
to work. Next, followed by a plus "+" or minus
"-" sign are the mode control characters, each
one of which affects a particular aspect of the
channel. "+" adds the effect of that mode
control character, and "-" cancels it. The last
parts of the /MODE command are any optional
parameters which are needed for some of the
control characters.
Note that the channel name must be in
uppercase, and the mode characters in
lowercase. The valid control characters and their
associated parameters are listed below.
/MODE control
characters
b [person] Bans [person] from this channel.
The [person] parameter must usually be in
nickname!user@host format for the "b" control
character to work.
: Sets the status of the channel to invite-only. In
other words, only nicknames who have been
/INVITEd by the chanop can /JOIN this channel.
I [number] Limits the number of possible
users to the parameter supplied.
m Defines that channel as a moderated
channel. This means that only users who have
been given chanop status can talk.
n Forbids the use of the /MSG command from
another channel into this one.
o [nickname] Makes [nickname] a channel
operator for this channel. If you do this, then
leave the channel, the newly-created chanop
can ban you from your own channel.
More than just a chat system
Although IRC was designed as a
method of communication
between Internet users, it's been
expanded into a more versatile
system using what is known as
the Client To Client Protocol
(CTCP). This system enables two
users who's IRC clients both
support CTCP to perform client-
specific actions across the IRC
network, such as transferring files.
The main /CTCP command
itself can be used to find out
various information about the
client software being used by an
IRC user, and the general format
of its operation is as follows:
/CTCP [nickname] [command]
The commands that can be used
with /CTCP are:
VERSION: Displays information
about the version and release
numbers of the IRC client being
used by [nickname].
FINGER: Displays information
relating to the amount of time
[nickname] has been idle on IRC
and which server is being used.
CLIENTINFO: Used without a
nickname to return information on
the CTCP commands that are
supported by your particular IRC
client software. Use it with a
nickname to see if the person you
want to communicate with also
has software which supports the
command that you want to use.
Although new CTCP commands
are being developed all the time,
the most commonly used one is
the /DCC or Direct Client
Connection command which is
used for file transfers. One word
of warning; never send or receive
a file from someone unless you
know exactly what file is being
transferred - it is possible for
unscrupulous IRC users to gain
control of, or damage, your local
system by sending bogus
password files, or getting you
unwittingly to send your own.
The options available for the
/DCC command are:
/DCC SEND [nickname] [filename]
Initiates a file transfer procedure
between your machine and that
belonging to [nickname] - in the
first instance [nickname] will be
informed that you want to transfer
the file. It Is up to the remote user
to continue the transfer using the
next /DCC command:
/DCC GET [nickname] [filename]
Accepts the file transfer which was
initiated by the remote user's
/DCC SEND command.
/DCC LIST
Shows the current DCC
connections with details of
their types, status and the
nicknames involved.
/DCC CLOSE [type] [nickname]
[arguments]
Aborts an unwanted DCC
file transfer request. The
arguments should be the same
details as shown using the
/DCC LIST command for that
DCC connection.
/DCC CHAT
Establishes a direct client-to-client
chat which, unlike normal IRC
communications which pass
through any number of IRC
servers, enables secure
communication directly between
two users. Once the /DCC CHAT
connection is established, the
secure messages are sent using
the normal IRC /MSG command.
62 Amigashoppeh
I May 1996
Issue 62
Darren Irvine
Comms
ShopperTUtorial
p Defines the channel as private,
s Defines the channel as secret. Secret channels
are an extension of private ones, and can't be
seen at all using a /LIST or /NAMES command.
I Defines the channel to be "Topic Limited". In
other words, only chanops can change the
channels' topic. This is the default on most IRC
servers anyway.
Using the /MODE
command
/JOIN #mychannel Join my rather
egotistically-named channel.
/MODE #mychannel +p Make the channel
private - so I can be in my own little world.
/MODE #mychannel +1 1 Just to make sure
I won't be bothered, I'll limit the number of users
on my channel to 1 . Normally, you will want to
consider a higher limit than this. Unless you like
talking to yourself.
Advanced IRC
commands
Once you start using IRC a lot, you'll need to
know some of the more exotic commands, so
you can appear to know what you are doing.
This is important if you have created your own
channel to be a chanop on, or have been
granted chanop status on an existing channel.
/AWAY [reason] This command marks you as
being away from your terminal, without ending
your IRC session. You can use this command
when you want to pop to the loo or go and
make a cup of coffee, or pour a beer, without
actually logging off the channels you are on.
/IGNORE [nickname]|[user< address]
[type] Sometimes you will wish to not see
messages from a particular nickname or
address, and the /IGNORE command is the
one to use. The type parameter specifies
which types of IRC message to ignore -
MSG, NOTICE, PUBLIC, INVITE, ALL, or
NONE. If you precede one of these with a
minus sign, you will stop ignoring that type of
message from the specified nickname or user.
Using the /IGNORE command on its own with
no parameters lists who you are currently
ignoring. For example:
Below: The results displayed when using the
available CTCP commands with Grapevine.
Grapevine Amiga Internet Relay (-hat Client t .33. <5>I994 bnan J. Cerveny.
□ | Grapevine Tool; - Active project; q (HOARSYCHANNEL)
|«
*i »i#i^j xP i >\mm\r°\ ¥>m
o | [0 mc) Channel eDARSYCHANNEL (p.) 1 usera, 1 chanop:
•Progr,
«Join>
•Char. ttode»
«C*»an Hode»
«Chan ttode>
pX darsy
((back buffer cleared.
You have joined channel «DtWSYCMR!1HEL .
Users on ttOflRSYCHfiNNEL : (Marty
End of /NAMES (1st.
darsy changes the channel mode to private
darsy changes the channel mod* to U»it 1 users
darsy sets ban's' on Mf.TTB ! •(?•
[ml
o I use I en 1 1&
•DflRSYCHBMC
s darsy
sea
Ram Disk Workbench Work
^1 mi
Above: Using the /MODE command to configure
my newly-created channel.
/IGNORE jimbob ALL Ignores all messages
from the user with the nickname "jimbob"
/IGNORE 'Sdumbass.oxy.edu This will
ignore any "INVITE" messages from any user
using the server dumbass.oxy.edu.
/INVITE [nickname] [channel]
Sends an "INVITE" message to the specified
nickname to join the specified channel. If no
channel is given, the current channel is used.
This command is handy if you want to speak to
someone on IRC, but you don't know which
channel they are on - you can simply ask them
to join your current channel.
/KICK [channel] [nickname]
Kicks the specified nickname of the specified
channel. You can use this if someone is
behaving in an abusive or otherwise
unacceptable manner. Note that unreasonable
use of the /KICK command will get you a bad
name on IRC, and it's probably a good idea to
leave any /KICKing that has to be done to
experienced IRC users - in other words let
someone else do the dirty work. Plus, you will
only be able to kick someone from a channel if
you have chanop status.
/ME [description] Produces a
description type message on the screens of
u«»v»»JjT^«ini«WimHMyuuiiiMii.M «iamn»i.n
Gre a BWate Toon - Active project o (aO AKSViHAf atij
WWC! Channel •OAiavCmwtHpO I u»ar». I change-
i buffi
darsy CLIOfflrjO Valid CTCPs *r- FINGER. VERSION. USERIfl
IINE, CLIENTlrf-O Mo furlnar halp Is yat aval labia
daray rinOER daray I* darrvntplasea. lhaeap.ooa foarran J
darsy VERSION Grapevlnr na.oa Intamat Relay Cnat Cllant
Brian J. Carvany <b7ianof.iaalata.#du> ^
darsy UStRirTO laCT'a last pi lol on Ina In'oraallon Sua*
da-ay TINE- Tha currant t laat on Ihla hoai
F<-"
<y.l -gSJl gdl KBdl
r ■ - . | -., , ; , vyot-k Stuff
#hottub
darsy
Li am
•\Mag(k
Shokwave
Rasput in
:'\Mada
='\_3baU
: \ T rumpe t
rubh-erban
\LSD
: '\ tubby
: \flnguzHawk
: "\Rslago
: '\undead
Issue 62 I
Above: In Grapevine's
Userlist window, users
with Channel Operator
status appear with a
little wand beside
their nicks.
May 1996
everyone on the current channel. For example, if
your nickname is "Fred" and you type the
command: "/ME falls off his chair laughing",
the other users will be treated to a message
like: * Fred falls off his chair laughing.
/NICK [nickname]
Changes your currently-used nickname to
whatever you like. If you do this too often other
users will think that you have a bit of an identity
problem - in general the rule is to pick a
nickname and stick with it every time you use
IRC. The only usual reason for a change of
nickname is when two users with the same one
try to use IRC at the same time - whoever is
first on will be allowed to use the name.
/NOTICE [nickname],[channel] [text]
Works in a similar way to "/MSG" but puts "-"
characters around your nickname as it appears
on the recipient's screen. Many automated IRC
processes (known as "Bots" which will be
covered later on in this series) use /NOTICE,
so it is probably best to stick to using /MSG
unless you want to give the impression that you
are nothing more than a program.
/NOTIFY [nickname],.
Adds the specified nickname(s) to a list of
names who you'll be warned about when they
start or stop using IRC. Including too many
names in this list can slow things down, both for
you and other users using the same server.
Unless you are really looking out for someone,
it's best to avoid using /NOTIFY.
/QUERY [nickname],[channel]
Starts a private conversation with the supplied
nickname on the optionally-specified channel. To
cancel this private mode, use /QUERY with no
parameters. In effect, using /QUERY is like
issuing a series of /MSG commands. Be aware
however that no conversation, even protected
by /QUERY, is secure on IRC. Any
unscrupulous operator on any IRC server
anywhere on the Internet can eavesdrop on any
messages, so be careful what you say.
/TOPIC [channel] [topic]
Changes the channel topic for the specified
channel, as seen when using the /LIST
command. In general, you'll need chanop status
to be able to change the topic. ■
Amiga shopper 63
Netscape: FutureNet - I ride:
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an IDE card for a box A
controller from Alfa Di
in the card and povejri
'AMIGA
M14 38S
Amiga Shopper is
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Lusei
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ideo's nev Edit Plug.
I There's bo doubt that pro
nuke the difference hetvt
and boring il to tears. At
consists of copying 3elec
(the source) to another j
this vny, a sequence •
\ together and form i
Surprising ly enough
'assemble editing' .
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/] Horn. | Reload
Images
Open
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fU*\ Search | Net Directorial Newsgroups
hnaiir wftrif tht m
CA
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Amiga and
PC twinne
The power ot a PC on your
Amiga wilh Ihe Siamese Systen
Exclusive report on page 32
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'.■»wMpl>g<
*.»..».rMV .,-,
r>„to< taatfMatai
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May 1996
brmatton about the disc, vhat track vas being played, the urn
'repeat' or 'shuffle'). However, vhen CD-ROM drives appeare
i presence atone that using them to play audio CDs vas enough,
e computer running and use processor time to emulate a front-ei
lit. forf»4iftri th* i*n»i*M- (-i-.nrrnH rtnrt 1 I flTi vithnilt hlinkiiic
Issue 62
May 1996
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D-R0M...GD
CD-ROM..0D-ROM^D-ROM.mROM^CD-ROM.mROM„J!D-ROI
Aminet Set 2
AMINET® SET 2, dated November 1995,
consists of approximately 4 gigabytes of
software in 12.000 archives. Whether you
like applications, games, communications
or programming, the SET gives you all you
need. Easy to use index files and search
facilities make accessing it a pleasure.
120 MB Utilities
270 MB Documents
40 MB text software
75 MB Business software
630 MB Pictures & animations
170 MB Graphics software
150 MB Miscellaneous
630 MB Graphics & sound demos
250 MB Games
1 1 MB Development software
10 MB Disk/HD tools
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840 MB Music modules
150 MB Communications /%£\
30 MB Music software - K B T
4 CD1ROM\SEhT»
Aminet 11
Aminet CD 11, dated April 1996, consists
of approximately 1,1 gigabytes of soft-
ware in 3700 archives. Since the release
of Aminet CD 10 more than 700 MB new
software has appeared. The current edi-
tion has a special focus on pictures, more
than 1000 pictures from the internet were
included. User friendly access software
makes the Aminet CD 1 1 a pleasure to use.
18 MB
Business software
34 MB
Communications
189 MB
Graphics & sound demos
21 MB
Development software
2MB
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52 MB
Documents
72 MB
Games
43 MB
Graphics software
14 MB
Miscellaneous
156 MB
Music modules
122 MB
Pictures & animations
25 MB
Utilities
10 MB
Music software
A*
q*
XiPaint V4
XiPoinl 4 is the new version of the leading
edge, 24-bit paint program. It's suited to
the demands of novice and expert alike,
and within a short time, you too will be
able to produce colourful and creative art
in 16.8 million colours. This version of Xi-
Paint features animations as well as easy-
to-use raytracing-capabilities.
Overview of Features: • Diverse paint
functions including colour, contrast and
saturation adjustment • Mask, outline,
recolour and fill functions • Airbrush with
adjustable spray functions • Light-table
function for manipulating montages and
animations • Text functions with anti-alia-
sing using Compugraphic fonts • Support
for a variety of graphic formats • Unlimited
Undo • Diverse manipulation of alpha
channel • Supports many graphic cards •
Layers to combine different projects •
ARexx port • Drag & Drop colours • Exter-
nal filter module • Extensive documenta-
tion • 60 textures, 50 landscapes, 30 other
pictures and many fonts included.
SA C
.9*
£
Workbench Add-On Vol.1
The Workbench Add-On CD-ROM is the
ideal companion to your workbench. On
this CD you will not only find the best pro-
grams, that are available for the Amiga,
but you will also get them ready-to-run
from the CD. The CD covers all areas of
interest, all, the programmer, the user, the
creative and the gamer will find what they
are looking for. On this CD-ROM there are
many shareware programs, some of them
at a special price, if you get registered.
.95
£24-
All products are available in your local
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Issue 62
May 1996
Mega Mouse 2 and
scanning pad
Broken your mouse? Why not replace it with
the Mega Mouse 2. And our new pad will
help make your scanning a doddle.
Description
Mega Mouse 2/scanning pad
AS price
Mega Mouse £8.50
Special subscribers
price
Mega Mouse 2 £7.99
AS price
Scanning pad £6.99
■-■;■-■■ -i --.i;:: .■ .:-■
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AS price
Mega Mouse 2 and scanning pad £14.99
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AMOS Pro
Compiler 2
Speed up your AMOS
programming with the
AMOS Pro Compiler 2
from Europress, which
Fl Licenceware have
re-released for a limited i
period. If you want to know more
about the program, we ran a review of it
in the April 1 996 issue, where we gave it a
respectable 87 per cent.
Description
AMOS Pro Compiler 2
AS price
£14.99
Order code
AS/AM/1
Specia' subscribers price
£13.99
Turbotech Clock Cartridge
Your Amiga will always know what day it is with this handy device
- even when it's switched off! Once the software is installed, boot
up and the time
and date are already
set. Fits into the
disk drive port (or
on the back of your
second drive).
Description
Turbotech Clock Cartridge
PPP
£19.99
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A collection of database, spreadsheet,
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Amiga shopper 67
ShopperPublic Domain
Domain Choice
David Taylor
:r.^«»7?«r»^« t r^
David Taylor tunes into PD-FM once again and picks the hits from the misses in this month's
selection of toptastic Public Domain software.
There has been a rather odd
development in the way
magazines treat PD recently.
It seems that a number of our
rivals don't seem to think that
there is enough stuff to review. We're
somewhat bewildered by this, because we
have more than enough. So while
everyone else cuts their coverage, you can
rely on us to keep bringing you as many
PD reviews as we can possibly cram in.
Gourmet And Wine
Steward
This disk comes from the Lifestyles series which
provides programs that are not computer
orientated. It's refreshing to find packages that
use the Amiga for something other than just
plain old WP/DTP/DTV, etc. Essentially, the two
programs on here are specialised databases,
but although they are custom created for the
purpose, they are not simply files running
through a database program.
Gourmet is a demo and has three areas.
The first is a recipe database, which has some
good ideas for entertaining, but is a bit limited.
The second is a bartender area that has the
Lcisureware rears its head
with two culinary programs:
Gourmet And Wine Steward.
Instrucriona & InoTBOicnls
1 i. S!lB : .sT:i:"M..i» «
In »«3 Inch r pan. . conblne toy sauce, lenon J«_*». °* r, J 1 / linger.
II. *•%**%* seeds and onion. Ihreed neat on IB to 2(1 s .* inih benboo
keuers. puehtno tfie sfceuer in and oul a* t t.oiioh teuing. .P i co »P|Q»,ored
ieat In Marinade, lorn to tool all sides. Cover and refr Id | I I I
pain. Hrrange on broiler pan and broil 1 Ip u io.hr, Ire, ,
lenont. BroTT i.a to 2 ntnut.es: turn to broil 1 ninute Tor -f j> oc jp ps
a;
sir
recipes for cocktails. I tried to convince Sue that
for a thorough review we should try making each
and every one to check the authenticity of the
mixes, but she remained unconvinced. The other
part is a section for keeping track of your own
wines that you have in stock. For this to be of
use, you've got to have an extensive cellar.
Wine Steward might be titled second, but it
is the more intriguing of the two programs.
Moving through menus and submenus, you can
select a course and an actual dish and Wine
u
ftOBRMEY
" @BRD
Let, Piatt
Steward will then select the wine that it thinks
best accompanies your meal. The downside is
that the database of dishes is not exhaustive; it
gives you a fair selection, but there's no real
section for main courses. Still, it's a pretty good
starting place if you need ideas about
integrating food and drink.
Verdict: 80%
'here, when, why, how...
Product
No of disks
Gourmet And Wine Steward
Liars
ShapeShifter 3.2a
Magic Sel ector
Final Wrapper 3.11
TurboCAT-Pro 2
Chaos Pro
X-Password 6
VMM 3.3
Roswell Crash Slides 2
Ultimate Memory Tools
Flummy Utils 5
OctaMED Technique
AGASSM 7.22
Tell The Time
TVp« of product
one
Applications
two
Demo
Application
Utility
Utility
Application
619K
Application
Utility
Utility
two
Slideshow
Utilities
Utilities
Prico*
SuppWor
Contact
90p + 50p
Roberta Smith DTP
0181 455 1626
£1 .50 + 75p Online PD
01704 834335
75p + 75p Online PD
01704 834335
£1.50
Kew=ll
0181 657 1617
75p + 75p
Online PD
01704 834335
75p + 75p
Online PD
01704 834335
n/a
aminet/gtx/fract,
ChaosPro.Iha
80p
Saddletramps PD
01709 888127
£1.50
Kew=M
0181 657 1617
£1.50 + 75p Online PD
01704 834335
75p + 7Sp Online PD
01704 834335
75p + 75p Online PD
01704 834335
Educational
£5.50
See PD directory
n/a
Applic ation
£2.95
5D Licenceware
01709 888127
Educational
£3.99 + 50p F1 Licenceware
01392 493580
Application
£3.50
Horizon@Seasoft
01903 850378
80%
90%
85%
90%
92%
90%
95%
20%
95%
20%
60%
75%
70%
95%
75%
96%
68
69
69
69
70
70
71
71
72
72
73
73
75
75
75
75
Paint, Paste And Draw one
Some prices listed here include postage and packing charges; buying more than one disk from a PD house is likely to reduce the price per disk; check compatibility
of the program with the PD House before purchasing. More information on all the PD Houses and their prices can be found in the PD Directory on the Coverdisks.
68 Amiga shopper PD
May 1996
I Issue 62
David Taylor
Domain Choice
ShopperPublic Domain
Liars
Is this a slideshow, education, fiction
or a demo? The truth is out there.
This two-disk set fades in sets of
high quality pictures and text that
explain the US Government's cover
up of alien contact. Apparently, Eisenhower met
up with aliens who needed humans to keep their
race alive. In exchange for advanced technology
for the Americans, he promised to keep the
aliens' visits secret. The plot thickens from here
on and I'll not explain it all. I'm not sure how
seriously you're supposed to take all this, but it
does make compelling viewing. When it's all
over, it finishes off with a small demo sequence
of swirling and spinning effects that have
absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the title.
Some of the demo part might not be exactly
inspired, but the burning plasma is still nice.
I'd say that of all the slideshows, diskmags
and demos about aliens that we've seen
recently, this is one of the best. It might not be
crammed with text or pictures, but it's not reliant
on the Roswell film for footage and although it's
really no more than rolling demo, it is
fascinating. A must for sci-fi and UFO fans,
although it may fall short of the mark for fanatics.
Verdict: 90%
Star buy
ShapeShifter 3.2a
This program is still causing waves
and, as we reported last month, has
been more than just noticed by
Amiga Technologies. It is an Apple
Macintosh emulator for the Amiga. It
is completely software driven and relies on
software versions of the Mac's ROMs that you
take from a real Mac yourself. For legal reasons,
you must own the Mac too. Because the Amiga
runs on the same processor family as the Mac,
the speed of emulation is astonishing. This is no
gimmicky program; you can use it for serious
work. It means that if you own an expensive
Amiga set up, but want or need to run Mac
software, you can just get a cheap, secondhand
Mac and then use the Amiga and all its power
and peripherals as a faster Mac.
This is a Shareware package and has a very
cheap registration fee of only DM50 (approx.
£30). Because of its Shareware status, the
author is constantly updating and improving the
Liars may or may not be true, but it
is entertaining. The aliens are
already among us. Apparently.
Workbench Screen
o
Workbench
IQIQ
c
Mag icSe lee tor Preferences ; EDI<E
-
Pattern ( Sound
5
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Wait | 9 jninutes before new patterns.
Workbench j Windows j Screen j
IE IE.
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WorkiTriunph Patterns/Triunph_
WorkiTriunph Patterns/Triunph.
WorkiTriunph Patterns/Triunph_
WorkiTriunph Patterns/Triunph_
WorkiTriunph Patterns/Triunph_
WorkiTriunph Patterns/Triunph_
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sv
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{
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program (sometimes dramatically), which means
that a version you get from a PD House can
soon be superseded. Indeed, this version has
already been supplanted by 3.4, although I
expect that if you order it you will get the latest
available version. These newer versions are
always worth keeping up to date with. For the
sake of the cost of a PD disk, don't make do
with an earlier version, because essential parts
like the PrepareEmul command and the speed
of the emulator have been improved, as well as
additional support being added.
The unregistered version of ShapeShifter
3.2a has a few of the options disabled, but it is
still perfectly usable for you to try it out in real
operation. If you want to use it, then register,
because the Amiga must have continued
development for this program.
New backdrops and
sounds for your
Workbench that
change every time
you boot up.
Issue 62
May 1996
If you want to know more about how
ShapeShifter works and how it is installed for
use, check out this month's DIY feature on page
28, which has a section covering the program.
Verdict: 95%
Star buy
Magic Selector
It appears that several programmers
have noticed how poor the original
WBPattern preferences are. Forget
the fact that it only uses IFFs, but
consider that it doesn't actually put
the backdrop partem up correctly. An update
called CGWBPattern has been included on this
month's Subscribers disk, which has datatype
support and a random option.
Magic Selector takes a slightly different
slant . It consists of programs for the
WBStartup drawer and a preferences interface
that enables you to choose a set of backdrops
to be picked at random, or in order; it also has
a set of samples for the system to use for
things like alerts - do something wrong and
a crowd might show its amazement. The
package requires WB3, MUI and, realistically,
a hard drive.
The disk also has a small selection of
patterns and samples archived on there by the
author to start you off. It might not be the most
exciting utility ever, but it's easy to use, well
programmed and it brightens up your Amiga in a
customisable fashion.
Verdict: 90%
Star buy
• .
AmigashcwerPD 69
ShopperPublic Domain
Domain Choice
David Taylor
&
<*°
o
O
CO
<■<■-,
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CD
*v
Final Wrapper has been updated a
little bit, but the disk has more
interesting stuff on offer.
or 3.0 %
Arexx Macro for Final Writer™
(o) 1995 by Andreas Weiss
Final Wrapper 3.1 1
This disk contains three programs.
The main one is Final Wrapper, an
excellent selection of macros for use
with Final Writer to create text
effects. We included version 3. 1 on
the Coverdisks of AS56 and this version is only
0.01 on from that. It offers little more of interest
if you already have our disk - just one small bug
fix and an additional catalog. If you don't have
our disk, but you do have Final Writer, either this
disk or that back issue are a must-have. The
new features this gives you are what led Larry
Hickmott to say; "Quite simply, anyone with Final
Writer should get their hands on Final Wrapper".
However, also on this disk is a patch to
speed up FW4 by up to 400 per cent for users
with 030 Turbocards. If you've got one, then the
author claims that the speed increases are
excellent, which makes it a pretty interesting
disk, I would have thought.
Lastly, packed away as an Lha archive in the
FW patch directory, I found an archive that I
have seen before, but I have not had the time to
play with. It's by the same author as the patch
and it contains a set of updated maths libraries
that replace the original Workbench ones for
people with FPUs or 040 and above processors
(there are two versions). So, if you've got an
A1 200 with accelerator and FPU, or just a
memory board with FPU, you can get an even
better performance; and A4000 owners are in
for a real treat.
There are some benchmark test programs
supplied and using them as guides, the results
are amazing. So amazing in fact that I've
reproduced them (see box below). I accept that
I have an 060 processor, but the difference in
times on this same processor using the new
libraries is staggering. Of course, it's a big
difference between the author's benchmark
programs and real usage. I tried to find a
program that uses the libraries intensively, and
after an afternoon's testing, concluded that
these libraries are used so briefly by programs
that testing by stopwatch is almost impossible.
All I can say is that rf you concentrate, you will
notice a slight increase. Judging by the
benchmarks, anything that does use them
intensively should be really moved up a gear.
The libraries have so far proved stable, but I
have kept a backup of the original libraries in
case any problems arise and would strongly
advise everyone to do the same.
I get the feeling that this archive just found
its own way on to this disk, because it's not
mentioned anywhere. In fact, the disk feels a
little sloppy. The Installer is left totally unpacked,
when it almost always supplied crunched to
save space. A ReadMe file is missing, which will
really annoy the author (rightly so). However, the
three programs that are on here are useful,
which means that even though it could be
better, it's still a good disk.
Verdict: 92%
Star buy
TurboCAT-Pro 2
It's back again! Dave Hill, the author,
is obviously determined to develop
this program so that everybody likes
it. The last version was reviewed in
issue AS59, but there have been a
number of changes since then. TurboCat is a
disk cataloguer and can manage a number of
databases (restricted to two in the PD version)
o| Tui-boCflT-Pro VZ By David Hill, Feb 19%, (Deno Version
2-
-TurboCflT-Pro
FluBiiiy T UtUsl5
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A new version of TurboCAT solves
some of its earlier problems and
surfaces as a very competent utility.
Database Management... tQ
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Delete Database Entrv<s) .
Clear ;:a--!t-H" '.:'.: e:ei.
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Back
d I Search For Title. ■ ■ .
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Type in the name of the file(s) you are looking for:
Ready
23. Total
2&J
198 J.
Ignore Case:
Disk
Disk
si
s
Disk: 3-
Disk: 3-
[la .:h;jFi.le:> VMM
Ma died Flle:> VMM
Matched File: > VMM
Matched File;> hide.vmm
Matched File:> info.urtim
Matcied File:> show. vim
Matched File:> stat.off.vm
Fast maths replacement libraries test result
mathieeesingtrans. library
250000 iterations
V37.1
SPAcos
23.21 sees
SPAsin
24.1 1 sees
SPAtan
30.58 sees
SPCos
30.58 sees
SPCosh
34.24 sees
SPExp
29.87 sees
SPLog
30.19 sees
SPLoglO
31.69 sees
SPPow
2.27 sees
SPSin
29.99 sees
SPSincos
34.19 sees
SPSinh
36.49 sees
SPSqrt
0.47 sees
SPTan
28.59 sees
SPTanh
37.97 sees
Total time: 404.53 sees
V40.6
1.01 sees
1.42 sees
1.1 6 sees
1 .45 sees
1.63 sees
1 .24 sees
1.29 sees
1.37 sees
1 .23 sees
1.50 sees
1.77 sees
0.79 sees
0.47 sees
1.84 sees
1.77 sees
20.03 sees
mathtrans.library
250000 iterations
V37.1
SPAcos
SPAsin
SPAtan
SPCos
SPCosh
SPExp
SPLog
SPLoglO
SPPow
SPSin
SPSincos
SPSinh
SPSqrt
SPTan
SPTanh
6.20 sees
6.50 sees
2.45 sees
2.13 sees
5.21 sees
4.12 sees
1 .66 sees
2.51 sees
2.08 sees
2.13 sees
2.47 sees
36.49 sees
1.19 sees
3.21 sees
5.55 sees
Total time: 53.05 sees
mathieeedoubtrans.library
250000 iterations
V40.6
V37.1
V40.6
1 .08 sees
DPAcos
42.14 sees
1.28 sees
1.56 sees
DPAsin
40.50 sees
0.93 sees
1.25 sees
DPAtan
35.85 sees
1 .00 sees
1.55 sees
DPCos
38.15 sees
1 .28 sees
1.69 sees
DPCosh
41.80 sees
1.66 sees
1.35 sees
DPExp
37.39 sees
1.23 sees
1.38 sees
DPLog
40.66 sees
1 .28 sees
1.51 sees
DPLoglO
42.37 sees
1.38 sees
2.62 sees
DPPow
74.45 sees
2.64 sees
1.59 sees
DPSin
38.21 sees
1.28 sees
1.97 sees
DPSincos
40.74 sees
1 .60 sees
0.88 sees
DPSinh
42.26 sees
0.79 sees
0.58 sees
DPSqrt
0.52 sees
0.52 sees
1.94 sees
DPTan
34.28 sees
1 .44 sees
1 .82 sees
DPTanh
43.42 sees
0.77 sees
22.85 sees
Total time
592.82 sees
19.16 sees
70 Amiga shopper PD
May 1996
Issue 62
David Taylor
Domain Choice
ShopperPublic Domain
Internet Choice
Amine! has been offline for most of this month and
is only just back up, so I'm just going to deal with
one program here. As luck would have it,
subscribers can find Chaos Pro on their
Subscribers disk this month. If you're not a
subscriber, the details for downloading can be
found in the box on page 68.
ffc 1
Chaos Pro
/\ MtGA There is still something very alluring <jj
^ ses about fractals, and although there are
quite a few fractal generators on the
Amiga, none have offered the level of
competence of Chaos Pro. This is nol a
new package, but we haven't feahn - '
before because it had a few problem
This new version is now much faster; although you
just how complex the calculations requ
requires a minimum of WB2, an 020 pr<
an FPU and really needs a hard drive, but
results are quite special. I had it using virtu
memory for the bigger pieces; I also found
after installing it and using the faster maths
libraries that I discussed in the review of the I
Writer disk this month, the whole program still
seemed to run faster after I had run the external
preferences program and allowed it to generate
files. Odd, but who's to a/gua? Maybe it's me going I
mad, but I'd recommend you do it anyway. |
OK, so fractals are not exactly useful, but I
think that you will find the re
and there are so many oplioi
but get involved.
Star buy
of your floppy disks. A number of enhancements
have been made, including a cleaner interface
and a couple of additions that I had (polish my
halo) suggested. The program now scans below
root level into directories and has support for an
external drive. It can also ignore the system
directories so that your database doesn't
become cluttered with things such as multiple
scans of C directories.
The program can also automatically scan
and add the contents of Lha and Lzx archives.
The former worked fine, but I had problems with
Lzx (I suspect that is down to our special,
licensed version of Lzx). I still get the slight
problem with the program trying to rescan disks
straight after scanning it; although this is easy to
cancel, it's a bug that needs rectifying.
Still, I think that this is my favourite
cataloguer and if the bug gets sorted then it
would happily notch up a few more percentage
points. Anyone who looks at the program will
see CanDo in the credits, so if you are looking
for the level of competence that this month's
Coverdisk can attain, here's a pointer.
Verdict: 90%
Star buy
Issue 62
X-Password 6
It is with a heavy heart that I'm writing this
review. With PD, you often find that there are
parts that can be improved, but that there is
something good at the heart of the program. But
X-Password has nothing to recommend it. The
author has produced a lot of other utilities, some
of which show promise, but quantity does not
equate to quality. It is better to produce one
polished program than 10 useless ones.
In the hope that it will be useful, I will list the
flaws of X-Password. It does not work as it
should for a start; icon tools are set incorrectly.
When you do get into the interface, the text has
been displayed with a bad choice of colours
that makes it hard to read. The password
chosen must be eight letters. You end up
installing the X-Password program manually and
in such a small utility, its 40K size is
unacceptable. The real problem though is that
circumventing the password is too easy. Either
remove the X-Password line from the StartUp-
Sequence or read the data file stored in S:,
which tells you the username and password.
You need adequate knowledge of the Amiga
to install the program and yet anybody, certainly
May 1996
a child, can remove it. In comparison to the
sophisticated Enigma II system, reviewed in
AS60 and included on the Coverdisks of AS61,
which actually makes a disk or partition non-
DOS until a password is entered, X-Password
PD submissions
If you have some exciting PD disks that you
would like to be considered for review in
Domain Choice, send them in to Amiga
Shopper, Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth
Street, Bath BA1 2BW, clearly marked as a
PD submission. We welcome any type of
disk, except games.
If you are a PD house, make sure you
include all the information necessary, such
as how to contact you, how much the disks
cost and how people can pay. If you are the
author of the program, state where people
can get your program from, and whether
you would like us to consider it for inclusion
on a future ShopperChoice Coverdisk.
Information about new PD houses
or PD authors is accepted for inclusion in
the PD directory (see box on page 73 for
further details).
Amiga shopper PD 71
ShopperPublic Domain
Domain Choice
David Taylor
AnJgaOS 3,6 AG6 1.262.566 <57x> Chip 11.5fl7.Z4fl <73'/> Fast vhh vhm V3,3
Big
o I Work bench
VMM
Ran Disk
IE
Work
isle
Virtual nenory free:
Public Fast Men free:
Nunber of pagefaults:
Nunber of pages read:
Nunber of pages written:
Nunber of page franes:
Pages used on device:
11883536
423784
%53
5479
4388
388
72
Tasks/Prograns
Menory
Miscellaneous
Code Data
Y
N
N
Tasks/Prograns
DEFAULT-
Photogenios
Power-Cache*?
nunguallff?
Enforcer R?
Fastcache
IPoyerCachei?
Add Erogranl lop
Add Djr
Up
Add Iask | Dotm |
Add
Bottonl
•9 Delete
Sort
Min. PUBLIC alloc. \r -\
Min. non-PUBLIC alloc. I T
Use
Cancel
Virtual memory is incredible, if slightly
unstable. Still, look at all the images opened
in Photogenics on an A 1200.
I ■• n I [IS
736x568 (1.5MM
IS
••. X
/
c
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®
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3
736x283 <813Kb>
lEle
Inages -
Drag an Icon over here to take it the current Inage
|e
Iiiages
filphal Second
II
;iC3^i
looks very silly indeed. Why is a program so
lacking in its sixth version? Earlier versions, and
possibly this one too, should never have been
released and without a complete change there
is no reason tor V.7, because it is so outclassed
by others. Abandon this and concentrate on one
powerful program.
Verdict: 20%
VMM 3.3
Virtual memory. It's like memory for
free really, isn't it? You've only got a
4Mb SIMM on your A1 200
accelerator, but you want to be able
to use 1 2Mb of RAM. VMM is the
answer. You need MUI, a hard drive, an 030
processor and a maths co-processor, but then
you are away. The most amazing thing is it
actually works. Well, most of the time.
Virtual memory works by using a handler
that makes the Amiga believe that a section of
the hard drive or a file on a hard drive is actually
an extension of RAM. Of course, when a
program uses virtual memory, it works a lot
slower than real RAM because it has to access
your hard drive.
This sort of memory cannot be a
replacement for as much proper RAM as you
can afford, but it is an amazing supplement that
enables you to work on projects larger than you
72 AwoASH orrE wPD
would normally be able to from time to time. So,
for 3D renderings and graphics, it's essential.
The last version refused to work with an
060 processor (not that there are that many
people with one yet), which caused me some
grief. However, one of the improvements with
this version was supposed to be 060 support.
After four hours of trying every permutation and
sitting through a lovely B500 0835 guru every
five minutes, I was beginning to think that
perhaps it didn't work with 060s after all. In a
final attempt, I decided to adjust the partition it
uses for the virtual memory and suddenly it
worked. It crashed again when I overloaded it,
but apart from that seemed to work fine.
Oh, a clay head, how convincing! Please stop
sending in Roswell slideshows.
May 1996
There are one or two bug fixes from the
last version, but several important fixes since
version 3, so do upgrade if you haven't had this
program for a while. If you use and keep VMM,
don't forget the Shareware fee, which is only
$20 (approx. £1 5). Pretty cheap for 1 0Mb of
memory. Or 50Mb. Or 100Mb. Or 500Mb!
Verdict: 95%
Star buy
Roswell Crash
Slides 2
Oh, the aliens are coming to get me! Oh, stop
them! The aliens are coming to get me! I'm
scared... Blah, blah, blah. Stop it! Please, stop it!
I can't stand another slideshow of the Roswell
incident. I'm beginning to believe that this is a
secret US Government plot to bore us all so
much with tedious photographs that we simply
don't care if aliens are annually holidaying in
the Algarve wearing G-string bikinis, never
mind just visiting Earth.
What adds insult to injury with this
slideshow (apart from the fact that the
pictures have mostly been seen elsewhere),
is that the whole thing runs from a simple and
slow GIF viewer that runs from a Shell script,
and that they have tried to disguise this fact
and make it look like there's more to it than
there actually is. This is a poor quality slideshow
that could have had everything fitted on to one
Issue 62
David Taylor
Domain Choice
ShopperPublic Domain
it* ij- u
B28K in use
—
Q
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Fast Menory : 2292752
Chip Menory :1228368
Total Menory :3265384
BIB
Thursday 87-Mar-96 17:29:81
58x I 1.178 M
48Z | 1 .942 M
The memory utilities are not awe-
inspiring and repetitive, but Flummy
offers more useful programs.
disk by using a different file format and which
shouldn't have been dumped on us in the
first place.
Verdict: 20%
Ultimate Memory Tools
Ah, the idea of Essentials disks and Ultimate
compilations. Wish I'd thought of that. Anyway,
this disk purports to contain all the memory-
related utilities that you might want. The snag
being that, while it has a couple of good
programs on there, it falls a long way short of
containing all the programs.
HDEnv is a useful way of gaining some
memory back by having your Env: directory
based on your hard drive and it can save
hundreds of Mbs of RAM if, like me, you have
masses of software installed. There are also
ones for scanning memory for errors and for
mapping out the errors, and ones for letting you
actually look at memory or access it directly.
There are then masses of memory meters, but
The PD directory
You will notice
references to the
PD Directory in the
"Who, what, when,
where etc" boxout
on page 68. This
directory used to be
printed within the
magazine, but had to
be in very small text because ot the amount
of information it contained. To solve this,
we have updated and recompiled the list
and put it on our Coverdisks as a text file in
the InformationZone.
The InformationZone contains both the
PD Directory and the list of User Groups
(which also used to be in the issue). They
are both in two formats, AmigaGuide and
ASCII. The AmigaGuide enables you to point
and click your way to the information,
making it much easier to find the details you
require. Read the ReadMe file for more
information. See page 10 for details.
Issue 62
that's one of the problems. Why so many? One
or two of the best would have been enough to
give people a choice. In addition, there are some
utterly useless programs, like the one that just
sucks memory. In the words of Wayne the Wise.
"It certainly does suck."
What is most annoying though, is that this
wasted space could have been used
constructively. Where is FastECS, the program
that remaps the exec.library in RAM? What
about LowFrag, the program that improves
memory management? The aforementioned
VMM could also have been fitted on as an
archive and an Installer script written. Or
WBExtender which can show more information
about what is held in RAM in your WB titlebar
and flush unused libraries from RAM.
There are some good programs on here, but
too many of them are old and pointless. The
good ones have been included on AS
Coverdisks in the past, so regular readers
wouldn't benefit from this disk at all. Come on,
put some effort in. It would be easy to produce
a genuinely comprehensive selection of useful
memory tools that could help users. Follow the
instructions above!
Verdict: 60%
Flummy Utils 5
Unlike the other disks in this series, this one only
has two programs on it. The first is a very large
package called, ironically, TinyMeter. It's a
memory meter which has masses of options and
looks pretty neat. The second is a new interface
for the Disk Masher System called MagicDMS.
This interface looks pretty good. It's large and
clear and has lots of options, including the
ability to de-archive to RAD.
This is supposed to be a beta release,
which detracts from the disk's attraction, but
anyone looking for a memory gauge may be
better going for this disk rather than the
memory utilities one because at least you get
another useful program. ■
Verdict: 75%
May 1996
Details of individual
PD Houses can now
be found in our new
Purely PD advertising
section on page 77.
Amiga Shopper's
100% PD page has
been included by
popular demand so
that you can find the
details you need as
quickly as possible.
Amiga shopper PD 73
Nobody Undersells US!!!!!
WE WANT YOUR BUSINESS!!
WE WILL MATCH OR BEAT ANY GENUINE
QUOTED PRICES.
A1200 RAM CARD WITH
CLOCK & FPU SOCKET
0MB
1MB
2MB
8MB
BUY
£45
£59
£89
£99
£199
SIMMS FOR A4000, VIPER,
APOLLO & MANY OTHER
CARDS
72PIN SIMMS
1MB £29
2MB BEST £49
4MB £55
8MB BUY £119
16MB £249
32MB POA
30PIN SIMMS
1MB £20
4MB £89
64PIN SIMMS
4MB £159
ACCELERATORS FOR
A600,A1200&A4000
A600 £109
A1200
VIPER 28MHz £119
VIPER 50MHz £199
APOLLO 28MHz £109
APOLLO 50MHz £199
APOLLO 040 30MHz £399
APOLLO 040 40MHz £499
A4000
Blizzard 2060 £699
FPU
MATHS-CO PRO
28MHz £24
\z £33
50MHz £89
WORKS WITH RAM CARD
AND ACCELERATORS
2.5" HARD DRIVES
FORA600.A1200&SX1
30MB
ALL
£35
40MB
£45
60MB
80MB
DRIVES
£55
£65
120MB
£89
170MB
£85
210MB
IN
£95
240MB
£105
340MB
£145
520MB
STOCK
£199
810MB
£299
COMPLE
TEWITH
SOFTWA
RE, CABLES &
INSTRUC
TIONS
3.5" IDE HARD DRIVES
FORA1200A4000
STAR
850MB
1GIG
1.6GIG
2GIG
£159
£179
£239
£299
COMPLETE WITH
SOFTWARE CABLES &
INSTRUCTIONS
MICE & TRACKBALL
290 MICE
400 MICE
OPTICAL
TRACKBALL
MOUSE MAT
£7.99
£10.00
£29.95
£29.95
£4.00
MONITORS
FOR ALL AMIGA
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ALL TRADEMARKS ACKNOWLEDGED,
David Taylor
Domain Choice
ShopperPublic Domain
Licenceware Choice
For some reason Sue thought that me making a
coffee for her was more important than writing
this section, just because I haven't made one
yet this month. Rest assured, I didn't fold
immediately and continued to grumble for
hours afterwards and also made sure that it
wasn't a very good cup anyway. The one good
thing to come out of the whole episode was an
ideal way to introduce the selection of superb
Licenceware titles that we've got for review this
month, and you've just read it.
OctaMED Technique
Last month, we looked at the modules designed
for games programmers from the author of this
techniques package. Technique comes as an A4
booklet with accompanying examples disk. The
booklet covers creating reverb, echo and
chorus, using loops and breaks, time stretching,
digitising tips and some miscellaneous topics.
This package is like an addendum to the
OctaMED manual.
While I'm sure that the techniques will be
of use to budding musicians, I'm not sure that
the text and disk offers enough coverage. What
there is is good, but the examples disk Is
sparse and the manual thin. The price of £5 is a
little steep, but I'm sure that some people will
find it worthwhile.
Verdict: 70%
AGASSM 7.22
A slideshow creator. Wow. OK,
another one of my biased views
bites the dust. This is a great little
program. It reminds me of the
excellent Nucleus, in that it
combines power with a really easy
to use interface. Essentially, it comes with a
creator and a player. You create the project and
then distribute it with the player. As standard,
the player can deal with IFF pictures and
animations and a couple of module types.
Doesn't sound too advanced? Well, it also has
ARexx support so that should you want to use
something that it can't deal with, all you have to
do is use a program that does support the
format and use ARexx to communicate between
the two programs.
If that sounds daunting, then don't worry,
because you can still produce some excellent
pieces without ARexx. Within the interface is
the ability to choose the files and select how
they will be shown, whether faded in or shown
using a set of special effects (a little like
M.M. Experience). The program automatically
RIN
:>RA!
Another excellent paint
package for kids of all
ages appears and our
editor becomes
"otherwise engaged."
recognises the file type, so it knows whether to
play a module or show a picture. In fact, if you
were starting out, you need know little more
than how to select a file with a requester. It
even supports powerpacked files to save disk
space. At the moment, the system requires
WB2.1 or above, but the author is trying to fix
the system to work on lower machines.
5D Licenceware are showing that some
quality software can be released for a price that
anybody can afford.
Verdict: 95%
Star buy
Tell the Time
This educational program is a bit of a mixed
bag. On the one hand, there are some
genuinely useful games that will help children
to work out the time. Although some of the
Tell The Time suffers in the looks department,
but is aimed at the younger audience.
graphics are poor, I would have thought that
the age range that are learning the time
probably won't worry about them, they'll just
like being allowed to play on the computer.
However, some areas of Tell The Time are
simply games like Breakout, which has some
time-related questions tagged on the end; other
areas have been badly thought out. One shoot-
out type game has a whole screen of text
explaining it all before the game. Because the
game consists of adding up times and picking
the answer from a set of three, I would have
thought that any child who can read all of that
can also work out that they only need add up
the final digits and match that with the one that
ends with the right number. Still, there is
certainly some good stuff in this program.
Verdict: 75%
Paint, Paste And Draw
I have been relegated to writing
about this program, because
everyone else has kicked me
off my computer to play with it
Huh. Paint, Paste And Draw is very
similar to Magic Paint Box, the last
Licenceware paint package to bring the AS
offices to a halt.
Like MPB, this is aimed at children, but it
takes a different slant. You are provided with a
set of black and white line drawings that you
can fill in with colours, which is fun in itself.
Then, you can select a set from clipart that
relates to the picture - there are several
different backgrounds with themes like
farmyard, outer space and seaside. When you
select a piece of clipart it magically pings on to
the screen and you can then colour it in.
There's also a small freehand drawing
section for you to design your own
backgrounds, or to use to add the final touches
to a piece. The whole program is tied together
with fun samples and basically what I'm saying
is that kids and immature adults (which means
most of us) will love this program.
Dirt cheap and in the words of the editor
"Fab"! More backgrounds is all we ask. ■
Verdict: 96%
Star buy
Issue 62
May 1996
Amiga shopper PD 75
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flmlta Desktop Uite)
Goldfish T^^
Goldfish It '
Sim City
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May 1996
Issue 62
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M4.30
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Amiga Shopper 77
ShopperViews
Letters
Sue Grant
This month in Talking Shop: changes
at AS; C64 emulator; the Amiga
overseas; the backlash begins; and
our DTP compo prize winner!
The main reason
why the Amiga has
carried on despite,
rather than
because of its
owners is the loyalty and
downright devotion of the
people who use the machine.
And here is where you have
your say - in our letters pages.
What's going
on?
I am writing this letter
wanting to know
what is going on. I
have been buying AS
since it first split from
Amiga Format way back in May
1 991 . Up to last year I had not
one complaint to make about this
sacred mag. But that was a year
ago, things change - the weather
plays up a little more and things
get dearer and slimmer. Now the
weather I know you can't
influence, but the length of your
mag is getting a bit of a joke isn't
it? Future publish a lot of
magazines and I think that price
per page AS is one of the most
expensive. Could you please
explain to me why items such as
AT contacts
If you want to contact Amiga
Technologies, write to the
following addresses:
John Smith,
Amiga Technologies GmbH
(UK), Hunting Business
Aviation Buildings, 1st Avenue,
Stansted, Essex CM24 1QQ.
» 01279 680617.
Petro Tyschtschenko,
Amiga Technologies GmbH,
Berliner Ring 89, D-64625
Bensheim, Germany.
Fax: 0049 6252 709 520
E-mail: gbo@llsa.amiga-tech.de
PC mags are full of reviews and
end up costing less than AS.
Are we the Amiga community
having to fork out extra so that the
others don't go up? Needless to
say that I am a bit unhappy with
the situation and I would
appreciate your views on this
matter. Apart from the high price
and the slimness of the magazine,
it is still quite a good read. Thank
you for listening.
Stuart Hall
London, E-mail
It's a hard iact of life in the
publishing world that
advertising pays lor
the production costs
of magazines.
Copy sales help,
ol course, but it
is mainly
down to
how many
adverts a
magazine
features every
issue that
determines its
success.
And, if you think
about it, the reason why PC
magazines have pages and pages
of reviews and ads is because the
PC market is huge and expanding
further every day.
Amigas have only recently
returned to the shelves of High
Street stores - after a lengthy
absence. It will take a while for
people to realise that they are
back. However, there is plenty of
new hardware and software still
being produced for the Amiga -
just look at all the reviews we
have in this issue.
And read our World Ol Amiga
show guide on page 24; there will
be loads more new hardware,
software and upgrades launched
at the show - the Amiga 1200+
amongst them. Probably.
More support
I want to congratulate your work
with Amiga Shopper, this mag is
GREAT!, and your WWW home
page is better that the expensive
Amiga Format, with more support
for us overseas customers, too.
Recently I saw an advert of a
software house (Software 2000),
who sell an interesting C64
package for the Amiga; and they
claim that you reviewed it and
scored it 88 per cent. I really
want to buy this package, but
first I want to ask you, What kind
of games it has? I saw
screenshots from
Spy vs Spy and Hole
In One. Can you
tell me some
more titles?
Rene Soria
Mexico
E-mail
Thanks for
your kind
words Rene!
The C64 program
you are referring
to is called
C64v3.0 and it
is an emulation
package from
Software 2000. We reviewed the
package in the PD section of our
October 1995 issue.
This C64v3.0 six-disk set
contains the latest release ol A64
and 1 00 C64 games, including
Boulderdash, Nemesis, Stellar 7,
Monty Mole, Falcon Patrol 2 and
Hunchback 2. You are right in
saying that we gave it 88 per
cent. Hope that helps!
You may also be interested to
know that we have included
Magic 64, which is another C64
emulator, on the Coverdisks of
our April 1996 issue.
If you can't get hold of the
latest issue of Amiga Shopper or
you want a back issue, call our
AS on
FutureNet:
look at
page 64.
special Order Hotline on
■a 01225 822511.
Thanks, AS
Thank you for including my math
program Funky 5.2 on your
Subscribers disk in the March
issue of Amiga Shopper.
I never thought that any
computer magazine could be that
fast in publishing new software
from the Aminet.
It is a very nice gesture to
send me a free copy of your
magazine as well. Thanks.
Peter Gath
E-mail
You're welcome! Please keep
sending your programs in to
David Taylor.
I'd just like to
say...
I'd just like to say keep up the
good work on the magazine; and
I'd just like to say that it is an
excellent idea to have the 1 3
issues per year (as opposed to
what AP said).
Simon Richards,
A loyal reader since Issue 1
E-mail
Many of you may not realise that
we published 13 issues of Amiga
Shopper last year; and we intend
to produce another 13 this year.
Most of the other Future
Publishing magazines will be
doing the same.
Do you think this is a good
idea? Would you buy 13 issues of
your favourite Amiga magazine
too? Write in and let us know.
Serious power
I read Amiga Shopper very often
since it is the only serious Amiga
magazine for power users. It is a
78 Amiga shopper
May 1996
Issue 62
Sue Grant
Letters
ShopperViews
pity that two or three Greek
magazines are interested in Amiga
but only for its gaming abilities and
only one (PIXEL), has pages for
serious users. The other mags
ignore the existence of the best
computer ever made, although it
has a strong professional
presence in the local and national
TV stations; ANT1 and MEGA -
the two most popular private
Greek TV stations - use A4000s.
MEGA used Scala MM300 for
the live presentation of the last
national elections; while an ARexx
script was taking data from the
national network without any
human interference, an Apple sign
was in the bottom of the screen!
The low budget TV stations
have remained in the age of ECS
chipset, 68000 CPU and Scala
500. This is because there is no
advertising, no technical back-up,
hardly any people who know Amiga
in depth and no reliable service
from the official representative. I
had to wait three months for my
A4000/030 to be repaired, despite
the fact I needed it to produce
graphics for local TV stations.
In September 1995, Blue Sky
TV spent £3,000 on a 90MHz,
1 6Mb RAM, Stealth VGA card, 4x
CD-ROM drive, 2Gb HD, Pentium
etc., believing that it can give
1 5KHz PAL video signal from its
video card through a TBC
corrector! The result was
disastrous because they didn't
know that a special and expensive
PC video card was needed. But it
is a shame that Amiga lost a buyer
due to inadequate information - an
A4000/060, 18Mb RAM for
£3,000 would do the job a million
times better, cheaper and easier.
Amiga Technologies must give
the Amiga international support
and show the power of this
computer. A price reduction for the
A4000 would help because
professional users depend very
How to contact us
Write in to Talking
Shop, Amiga
Shopper's letters
pages, and you
could win yourself
some cash. The Star
letter published every month
receives £25.
So, put pen to paper and
send your letters in to:
Talking Shop,
Amiga Shopper,
Future Publishing,
30 Monmouth St,
Bath, Avon BA1 2BW.
Alternatively, you can E-mail your
letters to:
amshopper@cix.compulink.co.uk
sgrant@futurenet.co.uk
All the letters received at these
addresses will be considered
for publication, unless you
specifically advise us otherwise.
much on CPU performance and
PCs are ahead on this point.
Can overseas readers enter
AS competitions?
I think that a column with
international, Amiga-related
activities and news all over the
world is missing from AS. Don't
forget that after the closing of
Amiga World, AS is the only
choice for power users worldwide.
Theodoropoulos Kostas
Athens, Greece
Overseas readers are welcome to
enter our competitions - we will
lengthen the closing dates as you
suggest, so you have plenty ol
time to get your entries to us.
Your suggestion lor an
overseas column is a good idea;
however, we are a UK magazine.
Amiga Shopper is just not big
enough to cover all the news from
all the different countries we sell
copies of the magazine in; which
include the US, Australia, Mexico,
Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Malaysia, Switzerland... Do you
see our dilemma?!
The backlash
And so it starts; the somewhat
unfortunate but perhaps wholly
predictable backlash against
Amiga Technologies. I suppose we
were all led such a merry dance
during the dreadful Commodore
DTP poster competition results
UonloSal
TO:.M21617J«
We ran a competition in our DTP
tutorial in issue 59 to design a poster.
The prize for the best poster was a
DTP program of your choice. We
received lots of entries, but there
were two that we liked the most.
The poster on the left Is from
John Ward of Derby and the other is
from Anne Weyens from Belgium.
We thought both were good enough
to show you, but we can only have
one winner, who is John Ward. His
poster is stylish, atmospheric and
does its job very well. Please write
in and tell us which of the four DTP
programs we offered you want as
your prize, John!
years that we cannot control our
inbuilt and painful cynicism about
the gurus (no pun intended) who
are now responsible for the
welfare of our chosen machine.
It is all too easy to hunch over
our computer and complain bitterly
about the mistreatment being dealt
out by AT, but could I just beg
everyone to stand back, take a
deep breath and for god's sake
chill out! It ain't that bad.
People were discontent that
the Amiga had not been on sale
for over a year; there was concern
that the new buyer would just
pinch the technology
and be damned with
the home computer
market; an upgrade
was needed urgently;
dirt cheap prices
were required; the
future path of the
technology was in
some doubt.
I think it's fair to say that
Commodore were at fault over the
sale of the company. Typically, they
were unable to organise their own
funeral effectively because they
were too busy trying to screw the
biggest buck out of some sucker.
There's no doubt that the UK
management buy-out was the
most favourable option from a
user's perspective - better the
devil you know - so when Escom
pipped it at the last moment the
>» DC BODDEAUaI
trepidation was palpable. And
yet, Escom/Amiga Technologies
have shown a remarkable
commitment to the technology.
Let us put ourselves in AT's
shoes. Having just spent $10
million on a product everyone
thought was dead, what were they
to do? AT owned the Amiga, but
at the time it comprised a few bits
and bobs of hardware scattered
around the globe with no guarantee
that AT could get their hands on it.
So, with a logical eye on the
Christmas market, AT resolved to
put Amigas back in the shops in
time for the Yuletide celebrations.
They were in effect starting from
scratch, and lo and behold they
did it. Even then, grumblings were
afoot about pricing, but given that
production was ramped up so fast
I think we should count our
blessings, particularly as the blow
was softened by an excellent
software bundle.
If the term cock-up can be
levelled at AT so far, there are only
two areas that spring to mind;
incompatible floppy disk drives
AMIGA
7
-,.:„
i
D »COn5l
i QJIAUTY
-Haas mem
*—»•« Hi //
and Scala MM300. The first is
forgivable as incompatibility arises
only with certain games and AT
have made moves to sort out
problem machines - the onus is
now on AT to ensure that the fixes
are made quickly and efficiently.
The second is a bit more
thorny. There is no doubt that
Scala MM300 is a magnificent
piece of software and the option
to bundle it couldn't be ignored,
but AT really should have foreseen
the lack of memory problem with a
standard A1 200 and made it clear
from the outset that the program
won't run in 2Mb of memory. This
is most definitely a customer
service cock up worthy of
Commodore, but even so I don't
believe it is insurmountable.
Readers may remember that
Scala HVT1 00 (the bottom of the
range version for the uninitiated)
was given away on a Coverdisk
some time ago. I have used it on
my A1 200 ever since as it is one
of the most intuitive and user-
friendly programs I have ever seen.
OK, so it doesn't exactly stretch
the AGA chipset - in fact, it
doesn't use it at all - but it does
emphasise that the Amiga is the
Issue 62
May 1996
Amiga shopper 79
You may have read a few details
about Amiga Technologies new
machine, but what does the new
Amiga look like? What does it
mean for the future of the
market? The next issue of Amiga
Format contains exclusive
pictures and comment.
On Sale
Thursday,
11th April
PLUS Lightwave 4 has finally arrived - but
does the most famous Amiga application still
have what it takes?
Sue Grant
Letters J^f ShopperViews
most friendly tool for this kind of
work. Most people who see my
home videos gasp in wonder at
the professionalism of the titling,
even though I only choose from
four fonts and work in a maximum
of 32 colours.
If, therefore, Scala HVT and
MM300 were both bundled with
A1 200s, then users could get an
immediate glimpse of the
capabilities of the machine.
Maybe I'm just being naive, or
maybe I've just owned my machine
too long, but I believe that the
Amiga has a strong future, both as
a games machine (which is still
where the main user base is), and
as a home productivity tool that is
second to none for ease of use
and flexibility. Just wait for the
PowerAmiga, it's gonna be a killer!
Jamie Winter
Waterlooville, Hampshire
Your views on Escom and Amiga
Technologies' treatment of the
Amiga are certainly worthy, il not
entirely justified.
Amiga Technologies intended
to sell 60,000 Amigas in the UK
alone around Christmas 1995 -
but, because of various set-backs
(including the fact that SDL, the
distributors of the Amiga, applied
for an Administration Order and
were then taken over), they only
sold 5,000 new A 1200s in the
UK. You may be interested in the
interview with AT's Gilles Bourdin
that we ran last month.
Also, because of "economic
reasons", Amiga Technologies
GmbH UK moved to the Escom
HQ in Stansted and shed most of
their UK staff.
Amigas are certainly back in
the shops, but they are also in
Escom shops where, it is reported
by many people wanting to buy
them, they appear to be overlooked
by the staff in favour of the PCs.
However, on the bright side,
the World Of Amiga Show is
going ahead as planned, which
should help sales of the machine.
And there will be plenty of new
hardware and software on display
there, which will make people
realise that AT and Escom are
backing our favourite machine.
See our show guide on page 24
for more info.
Coding clues
I've followed many of your tutorials
on C and Assembly language.
However, they did not actually
teach people to program. They
only guided the user through the
specific features of the language.
Whilst this may be necessary
to teach the way a language
handles the basics of programming,
it results in the amateur thinking he
can code an application without
any design or forethought. This
results in poorly written, bug-
ridden programs with no hope of
ever being updated successfully.
This applies to your recent
AMOS tutorials in which the user
is supplied with useful routines to
use in his or her own programs.
This is useful but can hardly be
called a tutorial and does not
teach the user to program
correctly. However, it has to be
said AMOS does encourage
disastrous programming
practices. How this language
claims to be of "professional"
status is anyone's guess.
Any modern, high-level
language which only allows one
parameter to be passed back from
a procedure, therefore encouraging
the use of global variables, and
has no support for dynamic data
structures without resorting to low-
level coding, is surely a poor man's
version of BASIC with some clever
hardware tricks.
I suggest a generic tutorial
based around successful software
engineering; programming is
basically problem solving and
requires an overall problem to be
broken down into individual
Advertisers' index
stages. Toby Simpson touched on
such a subject in his C tutorials.
The emphasis should be on design
of a program not the coding of
one in a particular language.
Since, if the design is correct, the
risk of errors is reduced.
How particular languages
support data structures, modular
programming and syntax of the
basic building blocks of coding
should also be covered. This will
allow the user to make an
educated decision as to which
language to code in.
Graeme Blenkinsopp
Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham
We ran our AMOS tutorial as a
response to readers requesting it.
It is very difficult
to include every
element of
programming in
I a six-part
I tutorial.
However, we
will bear your
comments in
mind for future tutorials. Readers'
comments are always welcome!
A waste of
money?
I read in Amiga Format that there
is an incompatibility problem
between some software and the
floppy drive in the new A1 200s. A
hardware feature, the DSKRDY
line, is not supported by the
mechanism used in the machines.
It seems that games, Citadel and
Zeewolf 2, were only saved from
incompatibility at the last minute
due to quick action by AF.
Does this mean that my
collection will be lost to me if I
purchase a new A1 200?
R. Hemmingway
Tooting, London
If you read our interview with
Gilles Bourdin of Amiga
Technologies in our last issue, you
will know that they have arranged
for a "little hardware fix that can
be easily installed by the Amiga
dealer upon request".
In praise of Dave
I have just
finished
reading the
Shell feature
in AS59.
What an
excellent
piece! I used
to think I knew a fair bit about the
Shell but reading this article has
dumped me firmly back in novice
class. It is much more powerful
than I imagined. And Mr. Taylor's
article was eminently readable and
therefore far more valuable than
some incomprehensible and
weighty tome.
Coverdisks, feature articles,
Amiga Answers; is there no end to
this man? Promise him anything,
but don't let him get away. Chain
him to his desk if necessary - I'm
sure AS readers will send him food
parcels (does he like Vegemite?).
Graeme Goodes
Australia
No, he doesn't like Vegemite, but
he loves digestive biscuits. And
shortcake. And anything with
chocolate in it. Oh, and beer and
burgers, of course. ■
1st Computer Centre Oil;
Amiga Format 01225 442244 80
Analogic 0181 546 9575 44
Dart Computer Services 0116 247 0059 77
Escom 16
Futurenet 01225 442244 64
Gasteiner 0181 345 6000 74
Golden Image 0181 900 9291 77
GTI Grenville Trading Int Gmb 0049 2017 88778 66
Hi Q Ltd 01525 211327 38
Marpet Development 01423 712600 83
Micronik Computers 0049 2171 72450 34
Owl Associates 01543 250377 66
Quantum Leap Software 01506 461917 2
Siren Software 0161 796 5279 4+5
Wizard Developments 01322 527800 13
Issue 62 I
May 1996
Amiga shopper 81
The essential magazine for Amiga enthusiasts
Next month
Video
The Amiga is the
cheapest way to
get started in
video. We will
be looking at all
the equipment
used for
anything from
amateur video
through to
professional level.
Everything from
using just a plain
Amiga to setting u
video suite. All you
need to know.
Amiga
MAG*B5I1
Reserve your copy today!
Remember that the easiest way to ensure that
you get hold of the June 1996 issue of Amiga
Shopper is to reserve yourself a copy at your
local newsagent. Fill in and cut out this form,
or photocopy it, and give it to your newsagent.
Dear Newsagent,
Please reserve/deliver a copy of Amiga Shopper
magazine each month.
Name.
Address...
Phone no - «
To the newsagent: Amiga Shopper is published by
Future Publishing tr 01225 442244.
Wordworth 5
We loved version 5. Next month,
we'll not only be looking at 5SE,
but we'll also have an exclusive Test
Drive version on our Coverdisks. It
will be packed with as many
features as can be crammed on
and will enable
you to load,
create and
save your
documents.
Of course, the
disks will be
packed with
lots more
stuff too.
Animation
Both 2D and 3D animation come
under the AS microscope. What
features do the packages offer and
how can you make the most of
your software? We'll help you
unleash vour hidden artistic talent.
Why not take advantage of our special six-month subscription
deal? Telephone the order hotline on « 01 225 82251 1 .
June issue 63. On sale Tuesday, 30th April 1996
No 57 & 58, Top Floor
Glasshouses Mill
Nr Pateley Bridge
Harrogate
North Yorkshire
HG3 5QH
Marpet
Tel: +44 (0) 1423 712600 Fax: +44 (0) 1423 712601
Leading manufacturers of HAM expansions to all major distributors and dealers, are offering a
SPRING SALE!! of all their products, SLASHING up to 20% off recommended retail prices.
Why not purchase your requirements direct from the manufacturer?
We guarantee despatch within three days Don't hang around. ORDER NOW!!
RRP Our price
A500 Expansion to 1Mb £19.99 ...£16.99
Also available with clock £24.99 ...£20.99
A500 Plus
Expansion
to 2Mb
RRP £29.99
Our price £21.99
RRP Our price
A600 Expansion to 2Mb ...£29.99 ...£24.99
Also available with clock £39.99 ...£32.99
A1200 Ram Accelerator
prices
include
VAT
and
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RRP Our price
External Drive £59.99 ...£43.99
.(All Amigas)
Uses 32bit, 72 way Simms
Built in real-time clock
Optional maths co-processor
Various configurations
Our Price
0Mb £59.99 £49.99
1Mb £99.99 £85.99
2Mb £129.99 £110.99
4Mb £189.99 £147.99
8Mb £309.99 £267.99
33MHz F.P.U £49.99 £38.99
(and crystal)
Also S-port (connect CD32 to Amiga). With CD and networking software £21. 99
A1200 internal real-time clock £10.99
Ring for best prices on 30 and 72 way SIMMS, hard drives, modems, mice etc and we will try to beat any genuine deal.
ACCESS/VISA welcome. 3 YEAR WARRANTY ON ALL OUR PRODUCTS!!!
®Q4
^Q2<$®(D4ffiass VW%<hm
Shopperdisks
ShopperChoice
The disk that makes a tin of sardines look like a
spacious, 20-bedroom flat occupied by a bachelor.
ApplicationZone
RxGene 3
A complete package that can
automatically write the tricky parts
of ARexx scripts for you. Also
included is a compiler to turn your
code into an executable form. This
brings the power of the underused
ARexx to your fingertips.
Blacks Editor
The new text editor that's already
attracted a lot of attention. With
amazing ARexx support, this version
requires Workbench 3, but offers a
whole host of features normally
associated with commercial
releases. Superb!
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TechnicalZone
Seven amazing programs that can
make a real difference to your
computing. XFD will unpack any type
of crunched file; Guru 3 offers an
English interpretation of guru
meditations; Floppy is the new
disksystem we raved about last month;
LowFrag optimizes memory usage, and
there's much more besides!
ProgrammingZone
Not jus! the code for the HiSoft BASIC 2 tutorial, but two excellent utilities for
programmers. There's MenuBuilder that can create a menu through its GUI and
then output the code for you; and PLab which can convert pictures into raw data
for inclusion in programs as well as offering masses of other features.
Plus: InformationZone: all you need to know.
Yes, honestly, we are not joking. There really is the full £150
CanDo package on our disks, as well as a TurboCalc demo,
other demos and essential PD and Shareware. 6Mb in total.
CanDo 2.51: complete!
We are going on about it a bit, but we
are honestly so excited that we can't
help ourselves. CanDo enables you to
create anything from multimedia to
application programs or games. You are
limited only by your imagination. To get
you started, we have a special feature
helping you to get the most out of this
amazing Coverdisk.
And when you've seen the power of
2.51, allow yourself to be tempted with
the amazing £80 saving you can make
on the upgrade to version 3!
Please note. Because of the power of
CanDo 2.5 1, it requires a hard drive.
MasterlSO demo
The program for real power users. Reviewed this issue on page 45, you can try out
the new software that enables you to cut your own compact discs. With CD-R
coming down in price, could this be the way forward for serious storage?
TurboCalc 3.51 demo
' ■ - ■ r.,:+ tflUA.I '1AU J.'JJWIJ IrM
■ I C I
Popular demand has finally
enabled us to get our hands on a
demo for this popular spreadsheet
program from Digita. You can now
see for yourself the amazing
power and versatility of this
package. Example files and full
on-line help will guide you
through; when you've found out
what it can do, you can save a full
£20 off the retail price in our
second exclusive offer.
UtilityZone
Two excellent utilities this
month. One for converting
sounds samples easily and
quickly between different
formats and the other for
grabbing screen pictures. Utility
fans won't be disappointed
with the Technical Zone either.
62 v
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a»-bo^
Programs'
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11